On America’s northern border, the threats are not unidirectional

By Willy Lowry – CBC News

Clad in a black bulletproof vest, a gun clasped to his hip, Tim Thayer gently pushes down the throttles of four 350-horsepower engines — and the 18,000-pound U.S. Customs and Border Protection boat jumps to life on the Detroit River.

Thayer is a marine interdiction agent, part of a team that patrols the waterways that make up the Canada-U.S. border in this part of the country.

He’s assigned to the Detroit sector, an area that encompasses Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. The border with Canada here is entirely water — all 1,388 kilometres of it — which poses a unique challenge.