Speech #1050094598

President. Minnesota and Michigan are two States that share a common border with Canada. and so I am very proud today to join my colleague. Senator ABRAHAM. chairman of the Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee. as a cosponsor of his bill to ensure Canada will receive current treatment once the immigration law is implemented in 1998. There has been a great deal of concern. especially in Minnesota. as well. as to how the immigration law we passed last year will affect the northern U.S. border. Right now the fear is the law is being misinterpreted by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Minnesota alone has about 817 miles of shared border with Canada and we share many interests with our northern neighbortourism. trade. and family visits among the most prevalent. In the last few years. passage back and forth over the Minnesota/Canadian border has been more open and free flowing. especially since the North American FreeTrade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect. There were 116 million travelers entering the United States from Canada in 1996 over the land border. As our relationship with Canada is increasingly interwoven. we have sought a less restrictive access to each country. The immigration bill last year was intended to focus on illegal aliens entering this country from Mexico and living in the United States illegally. The new law states that "every alien" entering and leaving the United States would have to register at all the bordersland. sea. and air. The Immigration and Naturalization Service was tasked with the effort to set up automated pilot sites along the border to discover the most effective way to implement this law. which was to become effective on September 30. 1998. The INS was quietly going about establishing a pilot site on the New York State border when the reality sunk In. A flood of calls from constituents came into the offices of all of us serving in Canadian border states. Canadian citizens also registered opposition to this new restriction. It became quite clear that no one had considered how the new law affected Canada. Current law already waives the document requirement for most Canadian nationals. but still requires certain citizens to register at border crossings. That system has worked. There have been very few problems at the northern border with drug trafficking and illegal aliens. In an effort to resolve this situation. I have joined Senators ABRAHAM.