Government documents obtained under access-to-information legislation state that the United States would virtually close the Canada-US border if a terrorist attack were launched anywhere near it.  The documents also show concern over newly implemented US anti-terrorism legislation, warning it could hurt Ontario manufacturers.

The legislation requires trucking firms, air cargo companies and railway shippers to submit electronic data about their deliveries of food and beverage products before they can enter the United States.

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Sylena Britt, a former employee with the Social Security Administration, was sentenced to 30 months in prison for her role in processing paperwork to grant more than 200 Social Security cards to undocumented immigrants.  The cards cost approximately $1,000 each.  Investigators have failed to identify and locate most of the new holders of the false Social Security cards.

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More than 340 border patrol agents were added to the US-Canada border in 2003, bringing the total to 1,000 agents on the border.  The number of agents on the US-Canada border has tripled since September 11, 2001.

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Jose Antonio Vasquez Villasenor, 22, was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of immigrant smuggling resulting in the death of a US Border Patrol agent.  The agent, James Epling, drowned after rescuing one of the immigrants who fell into the Colorado River near the California-Arizona state border.  His body was found three days later in the 54-degree, 27 feet deep water.  He is the seventh Border Patrol agent to die on duty since 1967.  Villasenor faces life in prison if convicted.