<VV> Passports

[Brent Fullard]

The border for dummies

National Post editorial board
National Post  
Published: Wednesday, April 22, 2009


Can someone please tell us how U. S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet
Napolitano got her job? She appears to be about as knowledgeable about
border issues as a late-night radio call-in yahoo.

In an interview broadcast Monday on the CBC, Ms. Napolitano attempted to
justify her call for stricter border security on the premise that "suspected
or known terrorists" have entered the U. S. across the Canadian border,
including the perpetrators of the 9/11 attack.

All the 9/11 terrorists, of course, entered the United States directly from
overseas. The notion that some arrived via Canada is a myth that briefly
popped up in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, and was then quickly debunked.

Informed of her error, Ms. Napolitano blustered: "I can't talk to that. I
can talk about the future. And here's the future. The future is we have
borders."

Just what does that mean, exactly?

Just a few weeks ago, Ms. Napolitano equated Canada's border to Mexico's,
suggesting they deserved the same treatment. Mexico is engulfed in a drug
war that left more than 5,000 dead last year, and which is spawning a
spillover kidnapping epidemic in Arizona. So many Mexicans enter the United
States illegally that a multi-billion-dollar barrier has been built from
Texas to California to keep them out.

In Canada, on the other hand, the main problem is congestion resulting from
cross-border trade. Not quite the same thing, is it?