DETROIT — Border officials stepped up security at the rail freight tunnel between Detroit and Windsor following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and now they’re seeing tougher measures paying dividends, WDIV Local 4 reported.
The tunnel has been a smuggling route for immigrants looking to enter the United States illegally. It has proven deadly because the narrow tunnel has only a two-foot wide platform on which to talk through, which doesn’t leave much room as trains barrel through.
Still some people are willing to pay up to $35,000 to be smuggled though the tunnel, Local 4 reported.
Taped warnings about illegally entering the tunnel have been added, along with video surveillance cameras. Fines for trespassing have been doubled and more security personnel have been added.
The Canadian Pacific Railroad has hired guards to watch the tunnel 24 hours a day, and is working closely with the U.S. Border Patrol and the Immigration and Naturalization Service to reduce the number of people who cross the border illegally.
Border Patrol agents arrested 26 people trying to gain entry into the United States in 1999, accordig to Local 4. In 2000, 11 people were arrested, and that number swelled to 26 last year. So far, 67 people have been jailed this year, the station reported.
Suspects from Pakistan, India and Malaysia have been arrested. The countries are known as hotbeds of al-Qaida activity, according to Local 4. Others were from Yugoslavia, Albania and Romania, the station reported.
Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s press secretary Jamaine Dickens said that the higher number of arrests are a sign of tougher security, but also believes smuggling people across the border is “not occurring as much as it has in the past.”
Canadian Pacific Railroad took over the tunnel’s security from Canadian National Railroad two years ago. CPR said that it is pleased with security efforts at the present, but would add accordingly if the INS or Border Patrol wanted to step up measures, Local 4 reported.