“It is a real border, and we need to address it as a real border.”

That’s what U.S. होमलैंड सुरक्षा जेनेट Napolitano insisted about the U.S.-Canadian border at a Washington, डीसी. conference on border issues this week.

सीबीसी समाचार quoted Napolitano as saying, “People are used to going back and forth, and the hockey teams go back and forth…. People just don’t think of it as two different countries. But the reality exists that there’s a border there.”

In a ग्लोब & मेल article about the event, headlined “Obama’s message: Glory days of open border are gone,” स्तम्भकार जॉन Ibbitson wrote that Napolitano’s goal was “…to throw a bucket of reality on anyone who hoped that the arrival of Barack Obama’s new administration would herald a loosening of new restrictions on cross-border traffic.”

Ibbitson went on to say that “Canadian politicians, and industry leaders on both sides of the border, hoped that the arrival of a new, Democratic administration would lessen the emphasis on security that Mr. Napolitano’s predecessor, माइकल Chertoff, placed on border relations.”

सीबीसी के अनुसार, Napolitano “…also said there would be no further delay of the पश्चिमी गोलार्ध यात्रा पहल, which as of June 1 will require adults entering the United States from Canada, कैरेबियाई, Bermuda or Mexico to present a passport. That phase of the initiative has been delayed several times.”

केनेथ लू द्वारा फोटो (फ़्लिकर)