November 25, 2004

     

The following article is excerpted from the 25 November 2004 edition of the “Toronto Star”.

American officials have scuttled plans to fingerprint and photograph as many as 15,000 Canadian-based transport truck drivers every time they cross the border into the United States.

Drivers who are permanent Canadian residents — but not citizens — will only be required to undergo the controversial measures once every six months, according to a U.S. Department of Homeland Security document.

Biometric finger scans and digital photographs will still be required of most other landed immigrants travelling from Canada to the United States as part of an American anti-terrorism program called US-VISIT.

Much of the $1.8 billion worth of goods transported every day between Canada and the United States is carried by trucks and the controversial fingerprinting and photographs
threatened to lengthen border-crossing times, and even prompt some drivers to quit the industry altogether.

"Cooler heads prevailed here," said Dan Einwechter, president of Challenger Motor Freight Inc., … "This would have been a ridiculous move. It would have driven many drivers right out of the industry."

A U.S. Department of Homeland Security document released this week on the agency's website said that visitors to the United States who hold an immigration form known as a
multiple entry Form I-94, typically used by truck drivers and others who regularly cross the border, would only need to have their photos and fingerprints taken when the forms are
renewed….

David Bradley, president of the Canadian Trucking Alliance, said as many as 15,000 of Canada's 100,000 drivers could have been affected by the new security crackdown.

After successfully lobbying for the repeal of the move to fingerprint and photograph truckers on every border crossing, Bradley said his trade group wants the Canadian government to
appoint a "border czar" to take the lead on border issues, such as the construction of a new bridge from Windsor to Detroit to complement the Ambassador Bridge.

A Canada Border Services Agency spokesperson said the Canadian agency wasn't involved in the move to ease scrutiny of truck drivers….

The United States rolled out its new security procedure in Sarnia on Nov. 15, as well as at Mexico-U.S. border crossings in Arizona and Texas, with plans to add the procedure at 17
other Canada-U.S. border crossings before year's end.

While Canadian trucking officials worried that the extra red tape would make it more difficult to get loaded transports through customs, U.S. government officials said the move would actually quicken the procedure.

Instead of a U.S. customs officer entering data by hand, landed immigrants are required to swipe their visa through a machine that resembles an automated teller machine, press
their left and right index fingers on pads that digitally scan their prints and look into a small round camera.

Biometric computer technology is then used to compare the photograph and fingerprints to a database that contains information on more than 1 million non-U.S. citizens who have
criminal records, outstanding arrest warrants or are included on terror watch lists.

Immigration Minister Judy Sgro said recently that Canada wouldn't follow the United States' example and fingerprint and photograph visitors coming into this country.