“Ito ay isang tunay na hangganan, and we need to address it as a real border.”

That’s what U.S. Homeland Security Janet Napolitano na insisted tungkol sa US-Canada hangganan sa Washington, D.C. conference on border issues this week.

CBC News nakasiping Napolitano bilang sinasabi, “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.”

Sa isang Globo & Koreo artikulo tungkol sa mga kaganapan, headlined “Obama’s message: Kaluwalhatian araw ng bukas hangganan ay nawala,” tagapamahala John 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, at mga lider ng industriya sa magkabilang panig ng hangganan, inaasahan na ang pagdating ng isang bagong, Demokratikong administrasyon ay bawasan ang diin sa seguridad na Mr. Napolitano’s predecessor, Michael Chertoff, placed on border relations.”

Ayon sa sa CBC, Napolitano “…also said doon ay walang karagdagang pagkaantala ng Initiative sa Paglalakbay ng Western hating-globo, kung saan ang bilang ng Hunyo 1 ay nangangailangan ng mga matatanda ng pagpasok ng Estados Unidos mula sa Canada, ang Caribbean, Bermuda o Mexico upang ipakita ang isang pasaporte. That phase of the initiative has been delayed several times.”

Larawan sa pamamagitan ng Kenneth Lu (Flickr)