U.S., CANADA AND MEXICO TIGHTEN SECURITY ALONG BORDERS

Concerns About Commerce as Borders Tighten

TORONTO, March 22 - Big commercial traffic jams subsided over the last two
days after snarling United States border crossings with Canada and Mexico
much of the week as security and law enforcement officers of the three
countries raised their guard against possible terrorist infiltrators.

Lines of southbound trucks full of Canadian auto parts, paper products and
other merchandise began to grow Tuesday night to two hours - four times the
normal average - at the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor, the
most crucial point in a trade relationship valued at $1.3 billion a day for
both countries.

Delays of up to five hours were reported at several other border points in
Ontario and British Columbia earlier in the week. But Canadian and American
customs agents and other law enforcement officials scrambled to alleviate
the waits.

Canada has agreed to step up random searches of vehicles by customs agents
while the police have set up roadblocks on several feeder roads near the
borders with New York and Michigan. Canadian officials said they had agreed
to a request by Attorney General John Ashcroft to increase the number of
Canadian Security Intelligence Service agents along the border.

With the United States under an orange alert, Mexican officials also
reported increased waiting times at the border with the United States,
though nothing that seriously threatened the $250 billion a year in border
trade.

At several of the busiest points along the United States-Canadian border,
officials on both sides have set up registration systems for individuals
and companies that regularly cross the border to allow them faster clearance.

In Cornwall, Ontario, a busy point along the St. Lawrence River bordering
New York State, a Royal Canadian Mounted Police helicopter is crisscrossing
the border watching for snowmobiles and cars crossing several border points
and "ice bridges" across the river that are unguarded by customs officials
or the police. Police patrols are stopping drivers for routine checks.

With the river frozen there throughout the winter, the police report an
increase in smuggling of illegal immigrants by local runners mostly
belonging to the sprawling Akwesasne Mohawk reservation, on islands along
the Ontario, Quebec and New York borders.

Law enforcement officials have arrested more than 30 smugglers and illegal
immigrants trying to cross into the United States this year, already
surpassing the number of such arrests in the area for all of 2002.

The Mounted Police helicopter that serves as the eyes of the water and road
patrols can stay in the air longer because of a new agreement allowing it
to refuel in New York State.

Meanwhile, in recent months Canadian law enforcement has placed sensors on
unguarded roads to monitor traffic and obtained warrants to place tracking
devices on vehicles driven by suspected smugglers.

Officials here said intelligence gathered and now shared on both sides of
the border was leading to new major investigations of organized crime rings
smuggling cigarettes, marijuana, illegal immigrants and cash that also
could be exploited conceivably by terrorists.

"We're not where we want to be but we're getting there," said Sgt. Gilles
Tougas, the police supervisor here. "Contraband is down a bit and there are
more arrests."

Still, the 5,500-mile border with the United States is hard to defend:
there are golf courses with tees on one side of the border and the greens
on the other, and towns that straddle borders.

"It's an undefended border," said Wesley Wark, a University of Toronto
historian who studies security issues, "and it always will be."