U.S.-Canada Border Spat Widens
PAUL VIEIRA November 2, 2022 Wall Street Journal
OTTAWA—A disagreement between the U.S. and Canada over border security, which has simmered for months behind the scenes, has escalated into a public diplomatic spat that is disrupting plans for business travelers who frequently cross the border.
The snarl revolves around the U.S.-Canada trusted-traveler program, called Nexus, that expedites entry of previously screened passengers into either country. Nexus centers in Canada haven’t reopened since they were closed at the start of the pandemic, because the U.S.—which has long wanted more legal protection for American border agents working at Canadian centers— hasn’t sent its agents back.
The holdup has added to the backlog of applications and renewals that officials say affects about 330,000 would-be or current program members. U.S. Nexus processing centers reopened in April.
Before sending back its Customs and Border Protection officers, the U.S. says it wants more legal protection for them. The U.S. border agents working at Canada-based Nexus processing centers help interview prospective cardholders and those seeking renewal to determine eligibility.
Under a U.S.-Canada treaty negotiated by the Obama ad-ministration and a former Canadian conservative government and completed in 2015, Ottawa extended broad authority to U.S. border agents working at preclearance operations at Canadian airports to question, search, detain and arrest travelers without fear of legal repercussions.
Canada says it won’t extend any extra legal protections to them because it isn’t part of the current cross-border security accord.
Nearly 80% of the active 1.6 million Nexus cardholders are Canadians, and senior Canadian business leaders say holding a card is essential to conducting commerce with the country’s neighbor and largest trading partner. The card allows travelers in the U.S. and Canada to mostly bypass the main lineups at airport security— which were at times monster-sized this summer due to staffing shortages and a surge in postpandemic travel. The same goes for U.S. customs preclearance at Canada’s biggest airports, among them Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.
Kirsten Hillman, Canada’s ambassador to the U.S., said at a trade event organized by the Canadian Embassy in Washington in October that the two-decade-old Nexus program “is being held hostage” by the Biden administration. “We can’t have the whole program sort of on its knees until we work this through because it is going to take some time,” she said.