Border crossings not a concern to Mainers

CALAIS – The message going around here is that if Americans fear crossing the border, then the terrorists have won. Ignoring the threat Thursday, Calais residents continued to cross the border at the downtown Ferry Point Bridge or the nearby Milltown Bridge to shop at local stores or have their cars serviced at Canadian dealers.

The only concern a border official heard Thursday came from Canadians calling the port to ask whether the border might be closed.

“It is not going to close,” said Tim Donnell, the Customs and Border Protection’s area port director in Calais. “Even if we go to level red, we will be very restrictive post-September 11, but I do not anticipate this closing unless something catastrophic happens.”

If it were to close, it only would be for a short time. “I really don’t think you would see an across-the-board shutdown of the border,” Donnell said. “The whole idea is to facilitate legitimate traffic and trade and not let the terrorists win. That is what they want.”

Canada’s Broadcast News Ltd. reported Tuesday the Canadian government was cooperating with a request from the Bush administration to randomly check vehicles entering the United States. Ordinarily Canadian authorities inspect only vehicles entering Canada, the news agency said.

Shortly after terrorists attacked the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 11, 2001, customs officers were joined by Maine National Guard members who served as border guards.

Nineteen months later, the Calais borders have returned to normal staffing levels. Right now the border is being staffed by a full complement of customs officers. “We went from 15 inspectors on September 10, 2001 – right now, including my part-timers, I have 34 inspectors,” Donnell said.

Some Canadians have expressed concern they will need new documentation to enter the country. “The Canadian media has not accurately portrayed what is going on,” he said.

Entry for Canadian-born citizens has not changed. He said Canadians are required to show only a picture identification to enter the country. “It is the Canadian landed immigrants, their equivalent to our resident aliens, who require a passport or in most cases a visa,” he explained. “Those people from the Commonwealth nations, for instance, Pakistan and several countries in Africa, will require a valid passport and in most cases a visa.”

Although the nation is on the second-to-highest alert, it is business as usual at the city’s two ports. The port director said his inspectors are doing their job.

“We are looking with more vigor than we were five days ago,” he said. Motorists are not experiencing any significant delays.

Traffic also appeared normal at the port of entry in Houlton.

“I’m looking out the window right now. The wait time would be zero,” Chuck Pelletier, interim port director in Houlton, said Thursday morning. “I would say it’s a normal amount of traffic. I haven’t noticed a drop or an increase.”

The attack on Iraq didn’t result in any change in procedures in Houlton, but security measures were automatically stepped up for all federal agencies when the terrorism alert level was raised, Pelletier said.

“From that point on, we increased the number of inspections, the intensity of inspections, and increased the use of nonintrusive inspection technology,” meaning increased use of an X-ray machine on vehicles and cargo, Pelletier said.

The number of people working a shift has doubled since the Sept. 11 attacks, but would not increase further unless the alert level were raised to red, Pelletier said.