Canada stiffens border checks, lawyers say
— -- Americans are finding it increasingly difficult to get into Canada, as border agents with better access to American criminal databases are turning people back for offenses ranging from assault to drunken driving to shoplifting.
Canada has had better access to criminal records since the Sept. 11 terror attacks but lawyers say they are now using the records more aggressively.
"There has been some changes in procedures," says Enrico Caruso, a Detroit-based immigration lawyer who says he has received more complaints in recent months from Americans shut out for old non-violent offenses.
"There's more questions being asked at the point of entry," he says.
Americans took nearly 44 million trips to Canada in 2000, according to Canada Statistics, the federal government's statistical agency. Fewer than 29 million made the trip in 2006, the last year for which figures were available.
Caruso says one reason for the drop in visitors is concern among some Americans that Canada will stop them because of their past.
"It is absolutely the case," he says. "An indiscretion can be anything from a DUI to when you were 18 and scalped tickets to a Red Wings game."
The Canadian Consulate General's office says almost all convictions can bar you from entry and improved sharing of criminal databases have made it easier for Canadian border agents to identify Americans with a criminal past.
Canada Border Services spokesperson Derek Mellon says there has been no change in the line of questioning asked by his agents. And he says the number of Americans turned away is small. In fiscal year 2006, he says fewer than 6,000 people were turned away.
Mellon said his agency's aim is to ensure the safety of Canadians.
"That's the reality of a post-9/11 world," he said. "When people are coming to the country they have to know that there's regulations."
Randy Kutter, a firefighter from Princeton, Minn., had been taking fishing trips to Canada his entire life. But Canadian border agents barred him in 2005 because of two DUI convictions in the 1980s.
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