A Haitian Influx Startles the North Country
May 14, 2010

By KATIE ZEZIMA
BURLINGTON, Vt. — The United States District Court here hired a Creole translator on an on-call basis in February. Three months later she is putting in 10-hour days, working so much that she does not have the time to search for a full-time job.

The workload for the translator, Chrissy Etienne, 24, reflects the unexpected and unusual circumstances playing out in northern Vermont near the Canadian border: More and more people are trying to enter the United States illegally, and nearly all of them here are Haitian, law enforcement officials said.

Soon after an earthquake devastated Haiti in January, the Obama administration announced that all Haitians in the United States would be allowed to stay and work in the country for 18 months, regardless of immigration status. Rumors that all Haitians would be welcome began circulating in Canada, although the order applied only to Haitians in the United States as of Jan. 12, the day of the quake.

Since Jan. 23, at least 150 Haitians living in Canada have tried, under cover of night, to slip over the border and navigate the dairy pastures and dense forest of northern Vermont.

“This activity is definitely one of the larger groups, if not the largest of any focused nature, that we’ve had on our border,â€