The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency (CBP) cautions, however, that the proposed “selective fencing” would not be as extensive as the hundreds of kilometres of fences along the border with Mexico.
Details are outlined in a draft environmental-impact study that was released two weeks ago, seeking input from American communities along the 6,400-kilometre border from Maine to Washington state.
“While fencing has played a prominent role in CBP’s enforcement strategy on the Southern Border to deter illegal border crossings, it is unlikely that fencing will play as prominent a role on the Northern Border, given the length of the border and the variability of the terrain,” the document says.
“CBP would use fencing and other barriers to manage movement (e.g., trenching across roads) in trouble spots where passage of cross-border violators is difficult to control; the resulting delay for cross-border violators would increase the rate of interdiction.”
An accompanying table shows there would be about five major projects, either upgrading access roads or building fences of more than 400 metres in length in each of four geographic areas, the border west of the Rockies, the Prairies, the Great Lakes and New England.
The proposal does not involve the border between Alaska and Canada.
The document outlines five alternatives to help the border agency “protect the Northern Border against evolving threats over the next five to seven years”:
>> Maintaining the status quo. The study warns that “this alternative would not fully meet the need for the program because it would not allow CBP to improve its capability to interdict cross-border violators or to identify and resolve threats.”
>> Upgrading current facilities such as border-patrol stations, ports of entries and providing more housing for personnel. “These facilities, built for a different era of operations, are poorly configured to support CBP’s evolving trade facilitation and antiterrorism mission,” the study says.
>> Increasing detection by fielding more patrols and deploying more high-tech hardware, such as body and containers scanners, remote sensors, radars and remote microphones and cameras.
>> “Tactical security infrastructure,” meaning expanding access roads and “constructing additional barriers, such as selective fencing or vehicle barriers, at selected points along the border to deter and delay cross-border violators.”
>> A mix of the last three options.
The study says that the border agency could minimize the impact of the border fencing by making sure the fences won’t cut through contiguous land parcels or cross-border communities.
Origin
Source: Globe&Mail
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