Subject: Re: [BoundaryPoint] US Border Controls and Canada -- an  editorial<br/>
Date: Nov 05, 2002 @ 09:31<br/>
Author: Kevin Meynell (Kevin Meynell &lt;kevin@...&gt;)<br/>
<a href="7757.htm">Prev</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Post in Topic&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="7763.htm">Next</a>&emsp;[<a href="topic7746.htm">All</a> Posts]<br/>
<a href="7761.htm">Prev</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Post in Time&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="7763.htm">Next</a><br/>
<br/><br/>
<div id="ygrps-yiv-274553602">Doug,<br/>
<br/>
<blockquote><span title="ireply"> &gt;It&#39;s such a weird issue...  on one side, the border defines two sovereign <br/>
&gt;nations -- who must look out for themselves and protect their citizens.<br/>
<br/>
 </span></blockquote>I allow myself a wry smile when I hear this argument. As you may be aware, <br/>
the UK refused to join the Schengen Area citing the same reasons, yet any <br/>
regular traveller knows you can fly into certain regional airports after <br/>
the passport and customs people have gone home. Even at London Heathrow, <br/>
it&#39;s rare to find any customs officers in attendance after about 8.00 PM.<br/>
<br/>
I know the UK authorities will argue that they have limited resources and <br/>
prefer to target high-risk flights, but that only validates my point even <br/>
more. They clearly don&#39;t consider flights from other EU/EEA countries to be <br/>
a high risk, so why keep up the pretence that border controls are necessary <br/>
to protect the nation? They serve only to inconvenience the vast majority <br/>
of legitimate travellers.<br/>
<br/>
Incidentally, I wonder how many people would tolerate border controls <br/>
between the US states or Canadian provinces ;-)<br/>
<br/>
Regards,<br/>
<br/>
Kevin Meynell</div>