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by Dave Gradijan

Security Tightened on New England-Canada Border

News
Jun 01, 20062 mins
CSO and CISOData and Information Security

Security has been tightened along the Canadian border in the northeast corner of the United States, Reuters reports.

Travelers from Canada are now required to show identification and submit to background checks at border posts in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, according to Ted Woo, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman in Boston.

“It’s such a shock to all of us here,” Florence Joyal, 68, who works the cash register in a general store in the Vermont village of Derby Line, told Reuters. “Before, you didn’t even show your ID to cross the border.”

The 5,500-mile border with Canada is under close scrutiny after President Bush, Mexican President Vicente Fox and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper agreed in March to work together on border security, the article states.

The tougher security slowed border traffic to a crawl on May 22, Canada’s Victorial Day, and is frustrating travelers and businesses alike. Some irate business owners telephoned state senators or the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to complain after the delays hurt sales, Dennis Michaud, executive director of the Greater Madawaska Chamber of Commerce in Maine, told Reuters.

“In the past, if an individual came across the border, their IDs would be checked. But there wouldn’t be a cross-referencing of 100 percent of those people into our databases,” said Woo, whose Boston office oversees about 40 border checkpoints in Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire.

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Compiled by Paul Kerstein