BORDER WITH CANADA MUST BE TIGHTENED, U.S. EXPERT SAYS

Send Message To Migrants, Former Security Official Says

Canada and the U.S. must redesign their "extremely porous border" to avoid
sending out a "come on down" message to smugglers and illegal migrants,
says a former top-ranking U.S. State Department official.

Jonathan Winer acknowledged that migrant traffic flows in both directions,
but said that Chinese, Algerians and other groups target Canada because of
its less stringent removal policy, generous social services and
under-funded enforcement agencies.

"There are people who do enter Canada who could not have entered the U.S.,"
said Mr. Winer, who left his position as former deputy assistant secretary
of state for law enforcement and crime last November to join a Washington
D.C.-based law firm.

"When they apply for asylum in Canada, there is no system to do a
background criminal check and often they are not detained. These people
decide they don't want to be in Canada and cross into the U.S."

His comments come after a UN report cited Canada's failure to fight the
drug trade and to fully implement international drug-control agreements.
Lloyd Axworthy, the Foreign Affairs Minister, yesterday refused to comment
on the report. But Keith Martin, the Reform foreign affairs critic,
attributes the problem to funding cutbacks. "We have a porous border and
the government has been irresponsible in not giving our border guards, the
RCMP and the police the resources to tackle the job of drug enforcement,"
he said.

In contrast, the U.S. has had "robust increases" in spending on state and
local law enforcement, noted Mr. Winer: "The underfunding of the RCMP is an
issue the U.S. government has talked about for years."

The inevitable "dark side" of globalization is the growing illegal movement
of people, drugs, stolen cars and guns across the border, and the illicit
Internet business, involving everything from child pornography to marijuana
seeds, say critics.

Senior immigration officials in Canada recently floated the idea of a
perimeter security system that would require the U.S. and Canada to
harmonize their visa requirements and share intelligence information.

Mr. Winer applauds the idea of a common cordon of security. He also
recommends high-tech devices to monitor the 200 million people who cross
the U.S.-Canadian border every year.

Last month, the U.S. Customs Service began offering travellers the choice
of high-tech scanning instead of external body searches. Mr. Winer noted
that Ray Kelly, the U.S. customs commissioner, announced it will introduce
more X-ray scanners at the border and that some are already in place in
Windsor. "The U.S. gets illegals and drugs from Canada. Canada gets stolen
cars, guns and some illegals from the U.S.," said Mr. Winer.

U.S. and Canada need a centralized computer database, similar to that in
use in the European Union, that relies on fingerprints to confirm the
identity of passport holders, he says. He predicts a flotilla of Chinese
migrant smuggling ships will arrive along North America's Pacific coast
this spring.

Huguette Shouldice, spokeswoman for Citizenship and Immigration Canada,
says Canada and the U.S. are co-operating to address illegal migrants.

"It's dynamic two-way traffic," Ms. Shouldice said, noting that one-third
of all of Canada's refugee claimants arrive from the U.S., most without
proper documents.