It’s final fate is to be decided by midnight tonight but it looks like the U.S. government will delay implementation–for 30 months–of a bill that would require Canadians to check in with U.S. Immigration officials before entering and exiting the country.
And if that happens, it means back to square one with the lobbying effort to get Canadians exempted from the legislation.
Gerry Foley, public affairs officer with the Canadian Consulate General in Minneapolis, said Ottawa has been lobbying up until now.
“It surprised us. I mean, we thought it was a no-brainer,” he said yesterday, noting the two countries went through the hoops with the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with the view to facilitate cross-border trade.
“It’s ironic to be sure.”
While virtually all northern legislators are championing the need to remove the Canadian border from the legislation, Foley said those in Texas, Arizona, and California don’t want to touch the bill because it seals up the country’s southern border with Mexico.
“It never was about the northern border,” said Foley, adding this 30-month delay is not exactly what Canada would have hoped for but admitting they were relieved it wasn’t being implemented at this time.
An amendment to delay implementation until Oct. 15 flew through both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives on Oct. 1–one day after it originally was to take effect.
The 105th Congress had been slated to adjourn last Friday but that’s been pushed back to tomorrow night, where the implementation delay is expected to be passed in massive omnibus legislation.
But even if changes aren’t made, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) said it has no plans to implement the entry and exit control system to document every alien–including Canadians–at this time.
As reported in the Times last month, INS district director Curtis Aljets said its border offices didn’t have the personnel nor computer system to handle the paperwork.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
