U.S. Republicans are now warning: Migration from Canada is a problem
CBC
A group of Republican lawmakers say it's time to protect the border. No, not that border. The other one, north of the United States. The one many Americans forget.
Their focus: the frontier with Canada.
That northern border usually is an afterthought in American politics, comfortably ensconced on the back burner of the country's searing debates about the Mexican border.
More than two dozen Republicans have a mission to change that, and they held a news conference outside the Capitol on Tuesday.
They announced the creation of a new northern border security caucus, aimed at flagging concerns about the perennially disregarded frontier with Canada.
Its creation comes as part of a reality check about American political attitudes.
Canadians are well aware of the surge in northbound migration, with people crossing into Canada from Roxham Road in Quebec, spurring Ottawa to plead for a new migration pact with the U.S.
What's gotten less attention is the exponential surge in migration going the other way.
These American politicians want more people to realize there's a historic increase from Canada involving foreign migrants entering the U.S., and even Canadians with criminal records trying to sneak in undetected.
One speaker after another acknowledged that the scale of this challenge is minuscule compared to the border with Mexico, but said it's time to pay attention.
The group's wish list is still ill-defined, but what they clearly want is more monitoring technology, and more agents, which means more jobs in their border districts.
"We are being assaulted because we don't have a border," said Ryan Zinke, a congressman from Montana who served briefly in Trump's cabinet.
"This is a national security problem and the northern tier has their own set of challenges."
Tuesday's events shed light on challenges on all sides: for this particular group of politicians, for the U.S. and for Canada.