Canadian citizens exempt from new U.S. border entry-exit program

OTTAWA (Nov. 1, 2002) — Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham said today he has received assurances from the United States that Canadian citizens entering the United States will not be subject to a new border security initiative that tracks the entry and exit of certain foreign nationals.

The National Security Entry/Exit Registration System (NSEERS), unveiled in September by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, requires selected travellers to be fingerprinted, photographed, and interviewed by INS agents upon arrival to the United States.

The INS has declined to disclose the criteria it will use to identify which visitors might be deemed threatening, but said nearly all visitors from Iraq, Iran, Libya, Sudan, and Syria — countries listed by the U.S. State Department as state sponsors of terrorism — would face added scrutiny. The list was expanded to include men from Saudi Arabia, the home country of 15 of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers, Pakistan, and Yemen.

Trucking companies were concerned that drivers born in those countries but travelling on a Canadian passport would be allowed to enter and exit the United States only at certain ports of entry and require them to be fingerprinted and photographed.

Canadian Trucking Association president David Bradley greeted Graham’s statement with relief. Yesterday, the CTA voiced concern that drivers with dual citizenships that are from the countries identified by the INS would be unnecessarily and unfairly detained, “creating congestion at border crossings, a shortage of drivers crossing into the U.S., possible diversion of freight to other border locations, and economic loss,” Bradley said.