U.S.-Canadian cooperation on border control... sovereignty issue?
While Mexican and U.S. border agents keep their distance, the Americans and Canadians have been conducting joint operations, according to the Washington Post. And the intermingling is only increasing. Because of concern about seeming sovereignty issues with the joint ops, though, the countries use the term "parallel investigations."
The article is framed in a manner to highlight the differences between border control operations on the southern and northern U.S. borders, and there are many: The southern border's 1,900 miles is patrolled by 10,200 U.S. agents, but the 4,000 miles of northern border is monitored by 950 American agents.
Putting Mexico to the side, though, the descriptions of U.S.-Canadian cooperation sounds a little like European Union integration:
From the article:
Five years ago, only Canadians worked at the Mounted Police headquarters in Ottawa, said Joe Oliver, a Canadian police superintendent. Now, Americans representing four agencies are based there, he said, adding that cooperation is "pervasive."
Just a few years ago, cross-border law enforcement cooperation was difficult and ad hoc. "You could get punished for improper disclosure to a foreign country," said Roy Hoffman, who runs the Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation in Blaine. "You used to need a friend on the other side to work a case together with you. Now it's ingrained behavior."
Gradual integration by lower institutions, instead of forced cooperation from above? Ernst B. Haas wrote a bit about that.
Europe, of course, is a whole different matter. Ever since the Shengen Agreement, enacted into law in 1995, treaty signatories have had to think about shared concern over borders. (The Shengen Agreement is more commonly known as the one that eliminated border checkpoints at national boundaries.) States in the agreement have joint training, share intelligence, "hot pursuit" laws that allow chase into a neighboring country, etc.
Those things might be in the near future for U.S.-Canadian relations, but down south, all we seem to be heading toward is a bigger wall.
The article is framed in a manner to highlight the differences between border control operations on the southern and northern U.S. borders, and there are many: The southern border's 1,900 miles is patrolled by 10,200 U.S. agents, but the 4,000 miles of northern border is monitored by 950 American agents.
Putting Mexico to the side, though, the descriptions of U.S.-Canadian cooperation sounds a little like European Union integration:
From the article:
Five years ago, only Canadians worked at the Mounted Police headquarters in Ottawa, said Joe Oliver, a Canadian police superintendent. Now, Americans representing four agencies are based there, he said, adding that cooperation is "pervasive."
Just a few years ago, cross-border law enforcement cooperation was difficult and ad hoc. "You could get punished for improper disclosure to a foreign country," said Roy Hoffman, who runs the Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation in Blaine. "You used to need a friend on the other side to work a case together with you. Now it's ingrained behavior."
Gradual integration by lower institutions, instead of forced cooperation from above? Ernst B. Haas wrote a bit about that.
Europe, of course, is a whole different matter. Ever since the Shengen Agreement, enacted into law in 1995, treaty signatories have had to think about shared concern over borders. (The Shengen Agreement is more commonly known as the one that eliminated border checkpoints at national boundaries.) States in the agreement have joint training, share intelligence, "hot pursuit" laws that allow chase into a neighboring country, etc.
Those things might be in the near future for U.S.-Canadian relations, but down south, all we seem to be heading toward is a bigger wall.
posted by bp at
12:48 PM
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