Bill Schneider’s column of (Sept. 22 Beacon: “Tear Down the Border Stations”) regarding the vicissitudes of crossing the border into Canada brings to mind a travel story of my own:
When I entered Botswana a couple years ago, the woman at passport control asked me how long I planned to be in her country. When I said “about 10 days,” she smiled and said, “Oh. Why don’t you stay longer?” Meanwhile, a foreigner entering the United States is not unlikely to hear, “Please step over there. We want to search your luggage, download all the files off your laptop … and while we’re at it, we might as well do a cavity search.”
So while I have never experienced the hassles entering Canada that Schneider apparently has, I have to wonder to what extent Canada’s tightening of border security is a reaction to the institutionalized xenophobia of its once-good-neighbor to the south.
For example, because of a surveying error in the 18th century, the hamlet of Derby Line straddles the international border between Vermont and Quebec. Once a symbol of international friendship (the town’s library is half in the United States, half in Canada), Derby Line has been turned into a police state by throngs of U.S. Border Patrol agents and increased local law enforcement people.
The war on terror (a tactic; think about it) has become an industry unto itself. And it’s an industry with a distinct marketing advantage: The folks who supposedly are assessing the danger are the ones who profit from exaggerating that danger.
So despite the facts that terrorists are not “sneaking over the border” and illegal immigration has been steadily decreasing as a result of our declining economy (while the number of Border Patrol agents has been curiously increasing), border-protection theater continues to prosper:
• In 2008, Border Patrol agents were authorized to operate up to 100 miles from both borders and all coastlines (an area comprising some two-third of the population).
• In Upstate New York, Border Patrol agents are boarding Amtrak trains that have not crossed the border and “interviewing” passengers, as in Eastern Bloc countries during the Cold War. (One naturalized U.S. citizen now carries her passport when traveling domestically.)
• The number of Border Patrol agents working out of the Whitefish office (which has no border crossing in its jurisdiction) is being increased from the four it had a couple years ago to 50 or more, based on a “threat analysis” that no citizen affected by the increase is allowed to see.
• The Department of Homeland Security originally planned to spend $8.5 million in stimulus funds to upgrade the border station at Whitetail, across from which is a closed Canadian border station (Sept. 23 Beacon: “Tester Wants Whitetail Station Closed”).
Under FDR’s New Deal during the Great Depression, federal money was spent on projects that provided jobs and improved Americans’ quality of life.
So I don’t think Schneider should get his hopes up about tearing down border stations. In a November 2004 speech, Osama bin Laden said the United States would bankrupt itself over 9/11. And with the only exception being our congressional delegation’s objection to the Whitetail border project, our politicians and their appointees have been faithfully following that program.
Richard E. Wackrow
Polebridge