Democrats are finally concerned about the border... with Canada

Apparently, we’ve now reached the phase where everyone agrees that there’s a crisis at the border. The only problem is we can’t agree on which one. The President’s focus is on the southern border, of course, but at least some Democrats are more worried about our open border with Canada. Democratic California Congressman Lou Correa is the new chairman of the House Homeland Security Oversight and Management Efficiency Subcommittee and in a recent interview, he claimed that the real border crisis is up north. (Daily Caller)

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“Big swaths of area between Canada and the U.S. — nobody watching. A lot of negative things go in and out: drug trade, arms trade, things that happen on the northern border that nobody’s watching. And it’s happening now,” Correa told CTV, calling it “totally wide open.” (RELATED: Trudeau Blames Trump For Canada’s Illegal Immigrant Crisis)

Correa also claimed that an unnamed border control guard told him that security concerns with Canada are not corrected.

“When we see something suspicious in Mexico, we tell the Mexican authorities and they’re on it. Canada, they didn’t see the same urgency to address some of these issues,” Correa said.

Canada’s Public Safety Minister is busy disputing that assessment, expressing pride in the longest unmilitarized border in the world. To be sure, there are conservatives in Canadian politics who are worried about the border, but they’re more concerned with illegal aliens heading north than coming to America.

It would be easy enough to mock Congressman Correa because he’s clearly trying to turn this into a food fight with the President. He claims that the only reason the Canadian border is in crisis is that so many agents have been pulled away to deal with the Mexican border.

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Rather than mocking Correa, however, it’s more productive for all concerned to just agree with him. Crisis situations at the northern and southern borders are not mutually exclusive. We can have problems with both. The difference is that there aren’t very many impoverished Canadians trying to make their way to the United States for a new life of living under the radar as illegal aliens. For most of them, all you really need is a driver’s license to get into America.

But that’s not the only issue of concern. If you happen to be a terrorist or other unwanted individual, and you can find a way to get into Canada and disappear into the crowd, you can then get into the United States far more easily than some might imagine, assuming you’re determined enough. There are indeed large sections of the border where anyone can simply walk, swim or paddle across without encountering a barrier of any kind and a low chance of running into border security personnel. Granted, it may wind up being a very long walk and you’ll need supplies and some hiking and/or camping experience, but it can obviously be done. I could show you a couple of spots in northern New York State where you could readily do it.

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So what would Congressman Correa suggest we do about it? I’m all ears. If he’s talking about building a wall, good luck with that. The border is more than 5,000 miles long, dwarfing our boundary with Mexico. Even installing remote thermal sensors and drones to cover it all would probably bust the budget. The point is, we deal with one problem at a time and the Mexican border is the more pressing issue right now.

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