Mark Souder: “I was particularly happy to see that the bill is requiring the commissioner of the Customs and Border Protection Agency…”

“I was particularly happy to see that the bill is requiring the commissioner of the Customs and Border Protection Agency to work to establish integrated border inspections areas on the U.S.-Canada border. As we have worked through the last few years in homeland security and the narcotics areas, as well as with the U.S.-Canada Parliamentary Group, Canada is our most important trading partner. We have one example up in Montana where we have an integrated customs border station. When we developed that, we had some problems in developing it, because at that point we were still having questions of whether our customs agents could carry their guns to the restrooms. So the restrooms all had to be on the American side. We were trying to get integrated immigration laws, because if they got a foot on Canadian soil, they could claim the full rights of the Canadian citizenship. We had to put barriers up in the middle of that building and angle it down a hill, and so two-thirds of the immigration station wound up on the American side with all sorts of problematic issues involved with that. But the Canadian leadership has shown much more willingness to try to accommodate some of the concerns we have.”