Summary: With our focus consistently aimed towards the controlling Mexico border, there could be dangerous people clever enough to take advantage of the less protected border to our north. And they are slipping through our fingers. There are pictures of four weapon-toting men in camouflage sneaking across, and a different video of a group tip-toeing across at night. Officials do not know who they were or where they ended up, but we do know that they successfully made it across. Part of their success is due to the fact that they came not from the border of Mexico, but from the much less secured border of Canada. The Canadian border is three times longer than that of Mexico, and has long, unguarded stretches with nothing but video cameras to document the goings on. While many more arrests are made on the Mexico border, officials say there is no way to know if it actually has more criminal activity. In addition to this, the Canadian border seems to be a prime spot for clever terrorists to get into the US undetected. Senator Heidi Heitkamp agreed with this statement, saying, “The problem is that we don’t know what the threats and risk are, because so much attention is given to the Southwest border.” Often, the Northern Border Patrol see people on the cameras, but by the time they get their, the people have disappeared. Yet even with the limited resources, they have caught hundreds of people from many nations trying to sneak into the United States by way of Canada. They have made 3,000 arrests in the past year compared to the 300,000 on our southern border. The New York Times has found a ninety mile stretch that is particularly attractive to dangerous criminals because of its woody areas, they can make it through undetected. It has been discussed in the Senate and was put to the test in 2007, when the Government Accountability Office sent people to try and cross while carrying duffels that appeared to contain radioactive material. All of them made it through without a trace. ‘“No one is arguing that the Northern border is the same as what’s happening down on the Southwestern border, but we can’t forget about this area,” said Senator Jon Tester, Democrat of Montana, to the Times. “If we take our eye off of that, they will go where the weakest link is.”’
Synthesis: This article was written today, October 17, at a time when the election is drawing nearer. And throughout the race for president our attention has been drawn many times by Donald Trump, towards the Mexico Border. People are often debating on whether it needs to have such drastic matters taken as to “build a wall”, or whether that will be a waste of our precious money. Before reading this article, I never really thought about the possibility of terrorists and criminals entering illegally through the Border of Canada, because when I thought border, I thought Mexico. I believe that this is a dangerous thing that we are leaving something in the open and unprotected, when terrorism is such a huge fear for the people of our country. It is hard to think that something as long as the whole northern border of the US is a sitting duck waiting to be crossed. This article was written to inform readers that there are other points of danger to take into consideration other than just the Mexico border. If we don’t patch up the weak link now, it could blow out of proportion to a size that it is too late to fix. We need to do something about this while there are still things to be done.
Canadian Border Article
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