U.S. to Boost Canada Border Presence by 45%

(National Post – Ian MacLeod, Canwest News Service)

Just days after a passport requirement for Canadians crossing U.S. land borders took effect, the United States is preparing to dispatch 700 more agents to patrol its northern border, the Ottawa Citizen has learned.

The move, confirmed Thursday by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, represents a 45% “plus-up” over current staffing of 1,550 agents. It will bring the total number of northern U.S. border agents to about 2,200 by September, 2010, more than a sixfold increase since 9/11.

Much of the additional manpower is needed to operate new border monitoring equipment and to run down investigative leads and other information generated by the new technologies, said a CBP spokesman in Washington. “We want to be sure and allocate resources to do the best job possible ... to make the technology and all that stuff that we're using up there work,” said Lloyd Easterling.

The technologies include radiation detectors, hidden ground sensors, security cameras and air and marine units, including Predator unmanned patrol planes monitoring remote border regions for potential terrorists and other criminals heading south across the almost 9,000-kilometre boundary. Read more here.