Canadian Border Threat.....

I read... while shaking my head, James Pinkerton's piece in the on-line version of the "Olympian" newspaper (Olympia, WA) stating that hundreds of OTMs (other than Mexican illegal aliens) had been apprehended with origins in terrorist source countries along the Southern border. He named Mexico as the global turnstile into America, quoting the "Denver Post". I don't know where his figures come from but from 10/03 through 06/04, 132 illegal aliens from these countries were interdicted along the Mexican border.

But, lets look at what he fails to report. For the same period of time along the Canadian border, 145 illegal aliens from these same countries were interdicted by Border Patrol. As well as, 144 from Communist China, 201 from India, 16 from the Philippines, 8 from North Korea, 8 from Ireland, and a bunch more from the Stan countries of the former Soviet Union.

So if Mexico is a turnstile, Canada must be an open door!

Now at the end of 2003, there were slightly over 1,000 Patrol Agents on the Canadian border and at the same time, there were approximately 10,000 Patrol Agents on the Mexican border

The Canadian border is about 4,000 miles long.

The Mexican border is about 2,000 miles long.

So in review, the Canadian border is twice as long as the Mexican border and there is ten times the number of Patrol Agents assigned down South.


Here is an illustration for the more visual:


X
____________________
CANADA


XXXXXXXXXX
___________
MEXICO

Where X=BP Agents and the Solid Line=Proportionate Border Length


Of course this is very simple, but for some ignorance is bliss.

Now if you were a terrorist, which border would you sneak across?


Add to this the fact that Mexican immigration policy is much stricter than Canadian policy.

Plus the fact that we have already caught terrorists from these countries coming across the Canadian border.

Now from a terrorism perspective, when we conduct threat assessment, which border should garner more consideration?

Once again, for those who aren't regulars:
Canada is a much bigger threat for terrorism than Mexico.