LONDON: Terrorists organization Islamic State’s attack inside North America could move between the U.S. and Canada, where the enormous border cuts through four Great Lakes and vast areas of remote tundra crisscrossed by back roads seldom seen by either nation’s border patrol agents, experts say.
Last month’s attack on the Canadian capital sparked fresh concerns about the potential cross-border movement of jihadists, an issue former CIA Acting Director Michael Morell raised last month, saying terrorists radicalized in Canada can easily make their way into the U.S. But Canada may have just as much to fear from terrorists coming north from the U.S., and experts say the only practical solution is close cooperation and careful monitoring of threats by both governments.
“To have a secure border, there has to be a partnership with the person on the other side,” said Mike Milne, spokesman for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. “I can’t emphasize enough that the partnership with the Canadians is really what makes the border work and we have a great team. They go hand in hand.”
Canada has divided the responsibility of protecting the border between the Canadian Border Services Agency at the official ports of entry, and the RCMP in between those points. The RCMP has a specific unit called Integrated Border Enforcement Team that is solely dedicated to protection of the border.
“Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the focus of the Border Patrol has changed to detection, apprehension and/or deterrence of terrorists and terrorist weapons.”
For the Border Patrol, the main objective is stopping terrorists from coming into the U.S., as evidenced by the agency’s own mission statement.
The overt call from Islamic State, beckoning its sympathizers to attack inside the U.S. and Canada, both of which are taking part in airstrikes aimed at ISIS in Iraq and Syria, has lawmakers worried about the border.
Canadian officials say that under Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who took office in 2006, the nation has increased its own border patrols by more than 25 percent. Canada also has recently undertaken tough new counter-terrorism measures and moved to revoke citizenship from dual nationals shown to have fought with terror groups overseas.
The U.S.-Canada border is approximately 5,500 miles long, including the Alaskan boundary. (CBP)
The number of apprehensions of people illegally crossing in from Canada fell to 3,230 last year, down nearly 1,000 from 2012 and marking at least a 20-year low. By contrast, the Border Patrol apprehended 414,397 people crossing in illegally from Mexico in 2013.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Cpl. Sharon Franks, Milne’s counterpart north of the border, agreed that cooperation something often missing between officials on either side of the Mexican border.
