Chuck Schumer: “my good colleague from Montana is from a State that is quite different from mine. He has summed up this bill well. We…”

“my good colleague from Montana is from a State that is quite different from mine. He has summed up this bill well. We are from different States but we face the same problem, and that is our northern border is not guarded as well as it should be. Frankly, I think our country has done a very good job on the southern border. We have had lots of problems there in the past. The various governmental agencies, prodded in part by this body and the other body, did a good job tightening things up. There was really no need to tighten up the northern border until 9/ 11. But what we have learned is that the terrorists know what we are doing. They can log onto the Internet, even if they are in a cave in Afghanistan, as long as they have a wireless connection, and can learn what we are doing. So they know what we all know: The southern border is pretty well guarded but the northern border is not. As a result, we have seen that various terrorists and others who seek to do damage to our country, evil acts in our country, perhaps, have started crossing at the northern border. It is a massive border. It has 128 ports of entry. It is 5,500 miles long. Large parts of it are totally unguarded. Some of it is water. The Canadian border that New York State shares with Canada is bounded by Lake Ontario and by the Niagara River and by the St. Lawrence River. It is a beautiful border, it is a peaceful border, but unfortunately it can be used by bad people for evil purpose.”