DETROIT — Members of Congress regularly flock to the U.S. border with Mexico to highlight illegal crossings and drug and human smuggling. Now they’re raising concerns over similar threats from the north, if on a smaller scale.
The more porous parts of the 5,525-mile U.S.-Canada border are a focus of the House Northern Border Security Caucus, founded in February. Comprised of 28 House Republicans, the group said it is concerned about increased human and drug trafficking, along with the decrease in Border Patrol agents and lack of security, along the U.S.-Canada border.
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The caucus's founders, Reps. Mike Kelly (R-PA) and Ryan Zinke (R-MT), said House Democrats were invited to join but haven’t.
Lawmakers acknowledge that dangers from the U.S.-Canada border are a fraction of those posed by America’s border with Mexico. Canada and the U.S. share the longest international border in the world, split by 13 states: 11 with land borders and Ohio and Pennsylvania’s maritime-only lines. The countries share one of the largest trading relationships in the world, with nearly $1.3 trillion in bilateral trade in goods and services in 2022. That year, Canada was the largest U.S. trading partner in goods and services.
Still, problems can and do arise. In March, federal authorities added 25 Border Patrol agents at a section of the northeastern border with Quebec in response to a spike in illegal crossings. The team aims to deter and disrupt human smuggling activities in the sector that includes the border areas of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and parts of upstate New York, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesperson said at the time.
Lawmakers in the Northern Border Security Caucus contend these kinds of problems should be nipped in the bud.
“Ensuring our borders are secure is a top priority for Congress — this includes our northern border. With fentanyl and other illicit drugs pouring across our nation’s borders, Congress must act,” Rep. Jack Bergman (R-MI), a caucus member, told the Washington Examiner in a statement.
The sprawling Upper Peninsula and northern Lower Peninsula 1st Congressional District, represented by Bergman since 2017, includes a lengthy maritime and land border with the Canadian province of Ontario. Bergman cited neglect by President Joe Biden’s administration for festering northern border problems.
“The Biden Administration has failed to enforce our Nation’s immigration laws resulting in unprecedented and illegal crossings, not only on our Southern border, but also on our Northern border,” Bergman said. “For years, Congress has been reactionary as problems arise. However, this new caucus will allow us to work together to begin addressing our Nation’s security and identify problems facing our law enforcement on our Northern border before they get out of control.”
Including Bergman, the Northern Border Security Caucus has four House Republicans from Michigan: Reps. Bill Huizenga, Lisa McClain, and Tim Walberg. The southwestern 4th Congressional District, an area represented by Huizenga in the House since 2011, is a two-hour-and-change drive from Detroit. And a section of the southern Michigan 5th Congressional District, a region represented by Walberg in the House for most of the past 16 years, touches on the U.S.-Canada maritime border.
McClain, a member of GOP leadership as secretary of the House Republican Conference, represents a House district with more direct exposure to the Canadian border. The Michigan “Thumb” and northern Detroit exurbs 9th Congressional District shares a land and maritime border with Canada north of Lake St. Clair.
Friendly rivalry
Lawmaker efforts to emphasize northern border problems diverge somewhat from the usual rosy portrayal of the North American land behemoths’ relationship by leaders of both countries.
“Last month, Canada welcomed President Biden to our Parliament,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at an April 28 Council on Foreign Relations event in New York. “The president is a great guy. He’s not only a strong partner of Canada. He’s an enduring friend.”
Trudeau then hearkened back to the White House tenure of President Ronald Reagan, who was famously close with then-Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. In Ottawa recently, Trudeau said Biden “remembered how President Reagan over three decades ago called the U.S.-Canada border a meeting place rather than a dividing line.”
Cross-border tensions, however, spring up from time to time. Despite so many similarities between the countries, some Canadian political commentators and comedians publicly spend time trying to come up with reasons why they are not like Americans. Or, just as often, why Americans are worse.
And the taunting can go both ways. An unaired documentary by then-Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson at one point mused about America “invading” its northern neighbor.
“What if tyranny arrived right next door?” Carlson asked in an episode promo. “What would that look like? And what would our government do in response?”
Carlson cited now-rescinded Canadian health measures in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Frederick Gagnon, a professor at the University of Quebec in Montreal, said policymakers across both sides of the border need to focus on legitimate security concerns. But for House Republicans, that can quickly morph into Biden criticism and become just another political cudgel.
“There are certainly issues that require elected officials in both countries to pay more attention to the border at this time," Gagnon told the Washington Examiner, emphasizing the need to do so in Canada and in Quebec, in particular.
“That said, some elected officials are certainly trying to use these issues to score political points, and to exaggerate their importance to attract public attention and to discredit their political opponents,” Gagnon said. “In the United States, for example, it may be tempting for Republicans to talk as much as possible about border (in)security to undermine Joe Biden, whose border policies are already very unpopular with Americans.”
Gagnon added, “In a context where the majority of Americans believe that Biden is not doing the right thing on the border with Mexico, Republicans can give their message even more weight if they convince the public that Biden does not know what he is doing on the border with Canada either.”
Recent political history shows criticism of Canada has electoral limits. Seeking the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, then-Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) drew widespread ridicule for suggesting that discussion of building a Canada border wall was a “legitimate issue.”
The remark came in response to the rise of Donald Trump in GOP primary polls. The eventual 2016 Republican nominee and president focused political debate in the U.S. on illegal immigration and the desirability and feasibility of building a wall on the southern border with Mexico.
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And while the Northern Border Security Caucus's concerns about smuggling from Canada are legitimate, cross-border problems go both ways, Gagnon said.
“Many elected officials in Canada are concerned about cross-border gun trafficking, which they argue is one of the reasons for the rise in gun violence in Canadian cities,” Gagnon said.