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Alexis Vannett CB

Two Borders, Three Countries

I am from Fargo, a city on the eastern side of the state of North Dakota. Fargo is also only a short 2.5 hour drive to our neighbors in the north, Canada. I have never before thought of my state as a "border state," when it very much is. In my mind, I always thought of Canadians as a kind of extension of people who, like us in North Dakota, live in the frigid cold weather, farm a lot and love hockey. I never thought of a Canadian as an intruder when I saw a Manitoba license plate passing me on the highway. I never thought of a Canadian as an "other." Not once. When I was little, I had role models that were Canadian: Sydney Crosby, Leonard Cohen and Sandra Oh just to name a few. Not once did I think of them differently because they were from a different country.

 

When I finally got the chance to visit our neighbor to the north, I remember that it was not hard to enter into Canada - it was, however much more difficult to come back home to the United States.

The following video shows just how easy it is to enter into Canada. 

This is where it becomes hard for me to put myself in the shoes of someone living in a southern border state. Even though I know about one border crossing, and even though I frequently interact with people from Canada, I cannot compare these experiences with those from southern border states. All that I know about the United States-Mexican border has come from the news, politicians, movies and the classroom. However, from this class, I have learned that often times these projections of the Latinx population is distorted and untrue. The immigration process I have seen first hand on our Canadian border is not the same as what happens on our southern border. 

Important questions came to my mind when comparing the United States' two borders. Why are they so different? Why is one highly politicized and not the other? Is there a way we can change this? How much of what the news tells us is actually true? What can we learn from our northern border and our relationship with Canada that could possibly be integrated into the way we handle our southern border?

It is important to ask hard questions when discussing the importance of this issue, as it is one that will not soon go away. 

 

Articles to consider:

https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1398&context=cuslj

https://cis.org/North-American-Borders-Why-They-Matter

U.S. security infrastructure looks dramatically different along northern and southern borders