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Border agents patrol I-91 in Vt.
Monday, September 05, 2005
By NATALIA MUÑOZ
nmunoz@repub.com


WHITE RIVER JUNCTION, Vt. - There's no toll booth on the picturesque stretch of Interstate 91 separating Vermont from Canada, but there's a price to pay for immigrants here illegally.

In the Northeast, about 90 miles south of the Canadian border, midway into Vermont, all traffic is halted at a Border Patrol checkpoint at the White River Junction rest stop on I-91 South.

There, officers peer into each vehicle and politely ask, "U.S. citizen?"

For law violators, the interstate becomes a one-way trip out of the country.

Those who answer in the affirmative may move on. Those who are not U.S. citizens, or who are deemed questionable by the Border Patrol, are directed to pull into the rest stop, where two trailers serve as offices from which officers run a check on them.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Bush administration increased emphasis on such patrols, which cover a 100-mile-deep zone on the U.S. side of the Canadian and Mexican borders to catch illegal immigrants who passed border checkpoints unencumbered.

In the past year, the U.S. Border Patrol in Vermont arrested 218 immigrants from 58 countries in connection with offenses ranging from expired student visas to felonies such as rape and murder.

Nationwide, between 2003 and 2004, nearly 150,000 illegal immigrants were deported.

Eight of the top 10 countries from which illegal immigrants entered last year are in Latin America, from Mexico to Costa Rica in Central America to Colombia in South America. The other top-10 countries are Poland and the Czech Republic.

Despite the atmosphere of fear permeating the country regarding Arabs, immigrants from the Middle East don't rank among the top 25.

Of recent arrests in northern New England, none were related to terrorism, said John C. Pfeifer, assistant chief with the U.S. Border Patrol in the Swanton Sector, which covers Vermont and parts of Maine, New Hampshire and New York.

People are deported either for administrative reasons, such as holding expired student or tourist visas; for entering illegally through one of the many porous points along the border; or using a fraudulent passport, Pfeifer said.

One effect of the 2001 Patriot Act is that charges that had been misdemeanors, such as shoplifting, now are felonies for legal and illegal immigrants, enabling the Border Patrol to arrest and deport even more immigrants.

"It seems silly that a legal permanent resident might be detained and deported for a shoplifting charge," said Parimita Shah, executive director of the Boston-based National Immigration Project.

The terrorist attacks also raised suspicions about immigrants in general.

"There's a focus on immigration because they were immigrants, but in the end this was about a failure of intelligence," said Shah.

During two recent visits by The Republican, the Border Patrol questioned four people out of the hundreds who were passing through the checkpoint.

Officers interrogated and searched the backpacks and foreign passports of a young white man and a woman who were riding on a commercial bus. Another time, a black man in a vehicle with New York license plates was pulled over, as was a truck driver, a Trinidad national with U.S. residency.

Joseph Thomas, the truck driver from Brooklyn, N.Y., was more than happy to cooperate with a smile, however forced. He was heading south from New Hampshire en route to Georgia when the patrol agents stopped him.

Although immigrants have the right to remain silent, they must show identification when asked. His papers proved he was a legal resident.

"There's no freedom of speech," said Thomas as he waited for the officers to check his papers. "You talk too much, you get deported. Freedom of speech was once upon a time."

The Fourth Amendment protects citizens from unwarranted searches, but in these times, some Americans gladly give authorities information in the name of national security.

"I'm all for it; it's a good idea," said Aaron Brodbar of Connecticut, who had taken a break at the rest stop with his wife Lisa after vacationing in Burlington, Vt.

"It's a good idea that they're down here," Brodbar said. "Once someone gets past the border, there's no way to stop them."

Which is why the Border Patrol is set up at a spot that's almost a two-hour drive from the border. Immigrant advocates say it is conceivable that one day the Border Patrol will stop people on Main Street, U.S.A., as long as the town or city is within the required 100-mile perimeter permissible by law.

"We have the statutory authority to do so," said Pfeifer, although he said it was highly unlikely that the Border Patrol would.

"The problem at the checkpoint is that there's unfettered discretion," said Shah. "It's not a transparent process. If you don't look American - whatever that means - part of the reason they can stop you is because you don't."

But the dragnet is cast for those of all backgrounds.

"The first time they were much more thorough, using mirrors under the car," said Paul Deschenes of New Hampshire, who had been questioned before but was not stopped on this day. He and his wife, Shelley Viles, were returning from picking up their 14-year-old daughter Sarah at summer camp.

The white American family stopped to eat a quick sandwich lunch at a picnic table in the shade of a majestic oak tree at the rest stop while agents at the entrance spent hours asking passersby their national origins.

A little later, a yellow school bus pulled in. Two dozen Buddhist monks in chocolate brown robes descended and made a beeline for the facilities.

Neither the Asian nor the Anglo monks were asked if they were U.S. citizens, and no Border Patrol agent entered the bus.

It's not unusual for many foreigners to drive down I-91. Many come from Canada. But on this day agents did not stop anyone riding in private vehicles with Canadian plates.

A commercial passenger bus was stopped. One agent stayed at the front of the bus while another walked up and down the aisle, presumably asking passengers their nationalities.

"They can't go into someone's baggage without a warrant," said Shah. "(But) the way to get around that is to say that they had a suspicion, because they are federal agents."

The suspicion is up to the Border Patrol agent - and must be presented as something other than a sixth sense.

The homeland defense security regulation that allows the Border Patrol to ask whether one is a U.S. citizen is applicable only within 100 miles of the Canadian and Mexican borders.

Within that perimeter, Pfeifer said, immigration authorities can deport undocumented immigrants immediately. Beyond it, undocumented immigrants are entitled to court hearings.

Still, said Shah, "There's very little due process at the border."

That's a price some say must be paid.

Fed up with immigrants slipping into the country illegally, about 900 civilian volunteers joined the Minuteman Project to monitor and report immigrants from Mexico who were crossing the Arizona border. The group later announced plans to extend its operations to the Canadian border with civilian monitors posted along the Ontario-Michigan boundary.

"We are honored to do our part to help make sure all border crossings between our two countries are safe and legal," said Matt Ford, founding member and Canadian co-chair of the group in a statement issued when the plan was announced in the spring.

Both Arizona and New Mexico have declared states of emergency because of the number of illegal immigrants crossing their borders. Although President Bush has called the Minuteman group "vigilantes," he also made a point during a recent visit to Arizona to promise more federal help to stop illegal immigration.

Indisputable is the considerable cost of deporting the millions of undocumented immigrants.

The Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank, estimates the tab at $41 billion a year. By contrast, the Department of Homeland Security has an annual budget of $34 billion.

For those stopped by the border patrol in Vermont, the chief cost is their time. But some take the view that innocence is as good a passport as anything.

"I have nothing to hide," said Yvan Gauthier, a trucker from Victoria, British Columbia, who was stopped while hauling heavy equipment to New York.

And soon he was on his way.