Rethink Border-Crossing Plan

In its zeal to crack down on illegal immigration, Congress included a section in the 1996 reform law that requires the Immigration and Naturalization Service to develop an automated system to document every alien entering and leaving the United States. The primary reason was to prevent visitors from overstaying their visas.

Obviously Mexico and Canada--particularly the latter, whose citizens frequently cross what has been termed the world’s friendliest border--would take the biggest hits. Ottawa is howling. For its part, Washington faces a daunting price for new infrastructure alone.

Mexicans already must carry visa-like documents to legally enter the United States, and almost all vehicles entering the United States from Mexico are required to stop, as a bar to illegal crossings and smuggling. Not so, however, on the northern U.S. border.

More than $1 billion in goods and services cross the U.S.-Canada border each day, and there are more than 200 million annual crossings by individuals. No visas or passports are required, and most Canadians do not have to stop when either entering or leaving. To document each entry and exit would require an automated system that does not exist and which the INS says may take a long time.

Aware of the problems, the House has passed a bill to delay implementation along land borders, but the Senate has a better solution. Sen. Spencer Abraham (R-Mich.) has introduced a bill that would essentially maintain the status quo at land borders while more feasible controls are studied. Until that is done, the new control system would apply just to aliens entering by sea or air, a restriction with wide backing.

Canada and the United States have enjoyed a long, pleasant, profitable relationship across their mutual border. Congress should not spoil it with ill-conceived border controls.