Security at center of North American summit
But sovereignty and immigration issues complicate relations between Canada, Mexico, and the US.
President Bush and his counterparts from Mexico and Canada will gather Wednesday in Texas for a summit at the president's ranch. They will "address
perceived shortcomings and inequities in the 11-year-old continental free trade agreement" (NAFTA), reports the
Los Angeles Times.
High on the summit's agenda will be security measures to guard against possible border crossings by terrorists.
However, forging unified anti-terror policies will not be easy given the differing priorities held by the three nations.
The US is keen on border security. Mexico's highest concern is the free movement of workers and immigrants. Canada will jealously defend on national sovereignty grounds the means with which it fights terror, not to be seen passively following the US. President Bush is expected to request
tighter measures against border crossing by terrorists, reports the
Chicago Tribune. In addition, US officials "are concerned about increased drug-war violence on the Mexican border and the movements of Central American gangs across the region."
The summit comes at a time of often-expressed concerns about terrorists using Mexican territory to enter the United States but also a time when many are trying to figure out ways to expedite the flow of people and goods across the border.
While Bush has said he wants to adopt an expanded Mexican guest worker program, many US members of Congress are far more concerned about safety. This week, the US House sent a bill to the Senate that would restrict some immigrant rights, and lawmakers expressed displeasure in recent hearings that the Bush administration was not spending more on border patrols."
Mexican President Vicente Fox "dismissed worries about Mexico's commitment to border security ... and said it is a bad time for nations to be thinking about walling off their borders [in regards to a proposal to build a barrier south of San Diego]," reports the
Tribune.
The
Los Angeles Times quotes Mr. Fox as saying "Mexico was eager to cooperate but no such [terror] threat had made itself apparent."
Fox said he planned to lay out his case to Bush for
an immigration reform bill to legalize the status of hundreds of thousands of undocumented Mexicans in the US, reports the
Arizona Republic.
Meanwhile, to dramatize concern on the funding of border patrols as well as send a signal that anti-immigrant sentiment is growing in the US, Arizona organizers of what is called the "Minuteman Project" say "they have signed up more than 950 volunteers, including 30 pilots with aircraft, to patrol the [Arizona-Mexico] border for 30 days beginning April 1," reports the
Republic.
Chris Simcox, leader of the "Minuteman Project, told the
Republic he and its members "are exercising their constitutional rights" and "they will notify the Border Patrol if they see border-crossers and will not confront them directly." In a decidedly less confrontational approach to border security, an independent tri-national commission, hoping to influence deliberations at the summit issued a report nine days in advance of the gathering, calling for a unity of action from a unity of purpose and interest.
Titled "
Creating a North American Community," [PDF] the report calls on the three nations to agree to the goal of creating "a common security perimeter for North America," by the year 2010 so that "a terrorist trying to penetrate our borders will have an equally hard time doing so no matter which country he elects to enter."
Not so fast, replied the
Toronto Star, in its lead editorial on Thursday countering the report. Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin must stand up for Canadian interests and not be steamrollered by the behemoth to its south.
On narrow 9/11 issues, much of the panel's advice makes sense. Canada, the US and Mexico should hold regular summits, harmonize tracking and screening procedures for visitors, swap data on suspects, and monitor container traffic. We're already doing much of this. There's an argument as well for expanding North American military co-operation to better secure the region's air and sea approaches.
But harmonizing visa and asylum regulations, as the panel proposes, is another matter. Canada, not the US or Mexico, must decide who visits here, or gets refugee status. Watch lists for terrorists - when we can agree on who those persons are - already exist. That should suffice. The Bush administration has gone too far deporting Canada's Maher Arar to Syria for torture, and holding prisoners at Guantanamo Bay without trial for Canadians to be entirely comfortable with harmonizing our approaches.
While "down on the ranch" Bush and Mr. Martin will be looking to mend relations after US-Canadian interests
diverged on continental missile-defense.
Ottawa's recent decision to opt out of the US missile defense system was the second time in recent years that Canada chose not to back US military plans. In March, 2003, former prime minister Jean Chretien refused to join the US-led coalition in Iraq. Among longtime Canada watchers in Washington, there was an almost universal judgment that Martin had damaged his efforts to build close ties to Bush.
Nevertheless, Martin is expected to remind Bush "that Canada remains committed to the defense of North America, as shown in its
S12.8-billion [Canadian; subscription] increase in funding for the Canadian Forces, reports the
Globe and Mail.
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