How do we get word out about this?

BY ROBIN SMITH Staff Writer
Thursday October 18, 2007

DERBY LINE VERMONT
Forty-three people last week sought to enter Canada illegally on one of the three unguarded international streets shared by Derby Line and Stanstead, Quebec, according to The Canadian Press.

They were caught on the Canadian side of the U.S.-Canadian border here by a joint operation with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, The Canada Border Services Agency and the U.S. Border Patrol, Canadian news outlets said.

They had maps showing how to cross on the three unguarded international streets here that are within 700 yards of the ports of entry on Main Street and on Interstate 91 in Derby Line, Canadian news accounts said.

An agency spokesman said that two have been charged in court in Sherbrooke, Quebec, with smuggling illegal aliens into Canada. Two others face charges of entering Canada illegally, according to CTV in Montreal.

The rest, most from Colombia and some from Venezuela, are claiming asylum status.

"This is a major spike in the number of people crossing illegally. It's a significant number," agency spokesman Dominique McNeely told The Globe and Mail, a Canadian national newspaper.

The crossings occurred between Oct. 9 and 14, McNeely said.

One of the four charged is an American citizen, while another is a Colombian with permanent residency status in the U.S., CTV reported.

Most of those seeking asylum have been released and have applied for refugee status, Claire Desgen, a Sherbrooke legal aid lawyer, told The Globe.

They are now in the Montreal area awaiting hearings before the Immigration Refugee Board.

The unguarded international streets, which were built intentionally to link the two communities, have drawn attention in both Canada and the U.S. after officials in the International Border Enforcement Team based in Stanstead sought local permission earlier this year to put barriers up on the streets. They cited an increase in illegal traffic into Canada in recent years, with some illegal crossers carrying maps that show how to get to Derby Line and how to enter Canada.

A Stanstead resident who lives on one of the unguarded streets told CBC news that she has seen more traffic than usual lately.

A committee of local officials from Derby Line and Stanstead, plus residents, is looking at if and how to close the streets.

Stanstead has the authority to close the streets on the Canadian side to vehicular traffic. The barriers must be temporary under an international boundary treaty.

If locals don't close the streets, the U.S. Border Patrol leaders have said they will seek to close the streets to vehicular traffic on the American side.

Locals are concerned that closing the streets will make it difficult to clear snow in winter, affect some businesses, and potentially slow down fire trucks and ambulances which serve people and homes on both sides of "the line," as the border is called here.

The committee has asked for guidance on whether all the streets have to be closed to vehicular traffic and whether the Canadian government will cover all costs of closing the streets.

Meanwhile, traffic problems on the border continue, with Canadian vehicles entering the U.S. on Derby Line's Main Street, occasionally clogging the village's small commercial downtown. A local business owner has erected a sign urging motorists not to block parking lots in front of businesses.

The Derby Line village trustees will meet Friday at 11 a.m. with the Vermont Agency of Transportation and representatives of U.S. Customs and Border Protection at the village hall.

A meeting about the unguarded streets is expected soon.

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