Why did Obama support tightening the U.S. - Canadian border?

[BolivarianHero]

I could go from Spain to Poland without a passport if I were a citizen of an EU state...Why the fuck can't I go to the U.S. anymore? I thought the progressives were in power.

[Captain Hilts]

1. It actually helps me as I am far less likely to get searched on both sides. They share more info

now. Whew!

[pipi_k]

14. Even back in 1988...

getting back into the US from Canada...even as a citizen, was a pain in the ass. For me, anyway.

Went to Canada no problem...the people at the border, and in the towns we visited, were friendly.

Came back and got subjected to one of the nastiest customs guys there could ever have been. Snotty, arrogant little asshole.

anyway, my companion and I were detained, our car and belongings and persons were searched. Don't know what they were looking for, but they didn't find anything. Apparently it wasn't OK to go to Canada and come back the next day...what actually happened was, the car started leaking oil badly and we knew we should just turn around and come back home.

I've never been treated so rudely by one of my own countrymen.

[Captain Hilts]

16. I've been doing it since 1987. In an effort to find drugs - Toronto-NYC - is a major route,

it seemed like the cars and luggage of all men between the ages of 15 and 45 were searched. On the train. At the border in a car. It was all about drugs.

I got my car searched a lot because I would be in Canada for good chunks of time. 2-3 weeks. Especially since 2001 I got 'randomly' selected for a 'garage' search a lot, on both sides. The last time I was 'randomly' selected, I walked in to the US treasury dept. official and told him, "you've 'randomly' picked the right person, because I'm getting really good at this." He punched in all my numbers from i.d.s and then said, "you're right, we don't need to search you."

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

28. I get that several times a month

Canada Customs can be stupid, since it seems to be hiring kids who would otherwise be working at Hollister (really, Canada Customs hires teenagers) but I often get a torrent of abuse from US Customs, as though I working abroad is some sort of declaration I hate America.

[DrDan]

2. so did we . . . imagine our surprise

[mmonk]

3. Progressives haven't been in power for quite awhile.

Prospects keep looking dim as well.

[cali]

4. I hate it. I used to zip back and forth across the border

now it's a ridiculous pain in the butt.

[Captain Hilts]

10. Like I said, it's helped me. I don't get searched as much now. nt

[blondeatlast]

5. Since I can't find a source anymore, I rescind my statement. nt

[sharp_stick]

7. Really? I don't think so

I would like to see some evidence for that claim if you have any.

Could you possibly be thinking of Ahmed Ressam (sp?) the guy that travelled by ferry with the intention of bombing LAX but got caught by the in place border security.

on edit:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38816-2005Apr8.html

[blondeatlast]

11. I guess I stand corrected. Since I can find no evidence, of something I read

far too many years ago, I rescind my post above.

Mea culpa.

[sharp_stick]

21. It's one of those things that

got repeated so many times people just assume it's a well known fact. I know it's been pissing off Canadians (of which my wife is one) since it started.

[Zywiec]

6. Anyone can go from Spain to Poland without a passport

There are no longer border crossings. We still have those here in North America.

You may want to read up on the Schengen Agreement:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Agreement

[SemiCharmedQuark]

8. Well for starters, there is no North American Union.

[Captain Hilts]

12. And the paranoia about NAFTA ensures there won't be one. We're losing our jobs to CHINA!!!!

[Romulox]

18. Excuse me? "Paranoia"? My guess: nobody you know works in manufacturing.

:hi:

[Captain Hilts]

29. Do you really think Mexico and Canada have sunk manufacturing in the US?

They haven't. China has. Yes, there have been cases, in automobiles and some appliances of moves to Canada and Mexico. GM wants to dodge paying for healthcare.

But we've lost the steel industry to Korea, Brazil and China. Textiles to China. Shoes to China and Indonesia.

[Romulox]

30. I don't know what "sunk" means. The US has lost manu. jobs as a result of NAFTA.

"Yes, there have been cases, in automobiles and some appliances..."

Errr.... :eyes:

[metalbot]

9. What if you weren't a citizen of an EU state and travelled from Spain to Poland?

I think that's the main problem that they are trying to address - ensuring that the people coming across the border are Canadian citizens, and not simply people who have gotten Canadian drivers licenses.

[sharp_stick]

13. There are no border crossings in Europe

when you're let into one member country of the EU you're free to travel as you see fit.

The difference here is that Canada and the US have different immigration and entry requirements and so one travelling to Canada first may not fit the entry allowed criteria for the US and vice versa.

[Romulox]

19. Perhaps technically, but there are military style security checkpoints in trainstations, e.g.

I remember having to clear a gauntlet of dogs and sub-machine gun wielding coppers (Interpol?) in Amsterdam after getting off the train from Paris.

"Hooray! No border crossing!" I thought as I looked down and did everything that twitching man with the gun told me to do. :hi:

[Zywiec]

23. When was this?

I used to work in the Netherlands and have never seen anything of the kind.

What did the twitching man with the gun ask you to do?

[Romulox]

24. You've never seen men with guns in the Amsterdam train station?

"I used to work in the Netherlands and have never seen anything of the kind. "

About 10 years ago.

"What did the twitching man with the gun ask you to do?"

Provide my credentials (they were looking for some fugitive or another.) My wife and I were also taken aside and frisked on arrival at Heathrow that trip.

[Zywiec]

31. Of course I've seen poilce with machine guns at train stations and airports

in Europe. I guess I never felt like I was running a gauntlet to get through.

Europe has been dealing with terrorism a lot longer than the US and typically address it with law enforcement rather than the military.

[Romulox]

33. Then why the incredulity?

"I guess I never felt like I was running a gauntlet to get through."

Like I mentioned, being frisked upon my arrival at Heathrow may have colored my perception of what was and what was not "a gauntlet". Europe was my first encounter with "police" armed with machineguns. You simply don't see that in the US.

"Europe has been dealing with terrorism a lot longer than the US and typically address it with law enforcement rather than the military."

I will not fault them, though, as I mentioned, the distinction between "police" and "military" seems a bit academic when the former are as heavily armed as the latter.

I merely offer my tale to provide some perspective on the crossing of other borders...

[FarCenter]

34. Well armed police and military are a common sight in Europe

E.g, in the '80s, in the Geneva airport mezzanine level overlooking the main lobby and check-n area there were federal police with machine pistols every 100 feet. Can't recall the threat at the time, but something to do with Palestinians, I think.

In Paris, at the Eiffel tower, French soldiers with rifles. Probably about the time that terrorists were detonating gas cylinders stuffed with explosives.

[Javaman]

15. because he hates Labatt's beer.

:shrug:

[sharp_stick]

20. It's owned by InBev

the same Belgian-Brazillians that just bought Anheuser-Busch (Budweiser) thus sullying the good name of Labatt's forever. Damn all that macro brewed swill to hell.

[sharp_stick]

17. Probably has something to do

with the fact that Canada and the US aren't part of a Union? There are different entry requirements for Canada and the US. A person entering Canada from a Visa free country may not qualify for a Visa free entry into the US and vice versa.

In addition Passports provide a lot of information not present on all drivers licenses and that makes it faster for people to cross. With a variety of vague and weird rules it can take forever for people with iffy documents to get out of the way and move the line forward. Now, you get to the border guard, provide your passport and 9 times out of 10 you're on your way.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

25. That's why this OP doesn't make sense to me. "Why don't two separate countries act like a Union"?

[Orsino]

22. We can't have you freeloading in the greatest health-care system the world has ever known. n/t

[Occam Bandage]

26. Because you aren't a citizen of a NAU state, because there is no NAU. nt

[SemiCharmedQuark]

27. That's not change I can believe in.

[MilesColtrane]

32. LAX/Millenium bomb plot

http://www.globalsecurity.org/security/ops/millenium-plot.htm