Pubdate: Fri, 27 Nov 2009 Source: Boston Globe (MA) Copyright: 2009 Globe Newspaper Company Contact: http://bostonglobe.com/news/opeds/letter.aspx?id=6340 Website: http://www.boston.com/globe/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/52 Author: Maria Sacchetti, Globe Staff ON THE BORDER, A HARD LINE Some Yearn For The Old Days As Patrols Soar Near Canada NEWPORT, Vt. - The seaplane burst out of nowhere Tuesday in the skies above Lake Memphremagog, swooping low across the Canadian border and banking over a stand of bare trees. In the past, such a flight over the still waters might have attracted little notice. But on this day, three US Border Patrol agents in a small boat spotted the plane and sprang into action, taking pictures, radioing authorities on land, and alerting specialists in California to track it on radar. Elderly residents remember when the Border Patrol was just a handful of men. But in recent years the modern, high-tech patrol has surged in Northern New England amid rising concern that the open mountains, lakes, and hayfields are vulnerable to drug running, illegal crossings, and potential terrorists attempting to sneak in through Canada. In the patrol's Swanton, Vt., sector, which includes Newport, the number of agents has tripled to more than 300 since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, increasing their visibility on backcountry roads and at highway checkpoints heading south. The agency is erecting stations and buying trucks, boats, aircraft, and snowmobiles - generating reactions that range from annoyance to gratitude. "We can't take the chance that the footprints we see are somebody coming here to live the American dream or somebody coming here to destroy the American dream," said Fernando Beltran, the agent in charge of the office in Newport, a town of 5,000 on the lake, which straddles the international border. "We can't be wrong once." Across the entire 4,000-mile northern border, the number of agents has soared from 300 eight years ago to more than 1,800 today, still a small percentage of the more than 20,000 agents nationwide. Most are assigned to the US-Mexico border. But in Vermont, the shift has been dramatic. Green-uniformed agents zip across Lake Memphremagog on new Jet Skis, surprising sunbathers whose boats drift over the watery border. They stop traffic nearly 100 miles south of the border at the checkpoints, where they ask travelers about their citizenship status. This month, they are sealing off two streets in the nearby border town of Derby Line, dividing a neighborhood to prevent illegal crossings. The patrol's presence is transforming this section of the northern border, which receives far less public attention than the southern border, where bloody drug-related violence and illegal crossings from Mexico are common. But for US authorities, policing the Canadian border presents challenges of its own, such as below-freezing temperatures and running into deer hunters as they patrol the thick woods. Some townsfolk embrace the Border Patrol, saying it has increased security and invested in a struggling area by buying land and creating jobs. Others are glad the patrols prevent illegal workers from slipping across the border and taking jobs. "I'm glad they're doing something about it," said Jeff Shelton, a 27-year-old unemployed asbestos-removal worker, as he lingered on Main Street in Newport, hoping to ask a local contractor for a job. "There ain't no work around here." But some said they miss the freedom they once had along the border, where neighborhoods overlap the line. "I'm not too happy about their shutting off the streets," said Betty McQuillen, the owner of a flower store, referring to the street closings in Derby Line. "It's been like one community, and now it's not." Many are also upset about the checkpoints occasionally set up farther south, along Interstate 91, near White River Junction, Vt., and across the border in New Hampshire, along Interstate 89 south. Agents have not caught terrorists, but they have snagged drug runners and immigrants who were here illegally. The ACLU of Vermont considers the checkpoints unreasonable searches, and says the results do not justify the intrusion into travelers' privacy. The group also worries about safety. In 2004, in New York State, four people were killed when two drivers failed to stop and crashed. Agents say they post alerts on the roadways well in advance to prevent accidents. "Our freedom of movement is one of those core freedoms that we take for granted," said Allen Gilbert, executive director of the ACLU of Vermont. "When you encounter a checkpoint 94 miles south of the Canadian border, it really gives you quite a jolt." Mark Henry, operations officer for the patrol's Swanton sector, which covers 295 miles of border from New York through New Hampshire, said the checkpoints increase border security. Federal law requires noncitizens to carry their documents, and failure to comply is a misdemeanor punishable by fines that range from $150 to $1,000, or 30 days to six months in jail. Henry said the penalties are rarely imposed, but he said the checks make a difference. "We don't run traffic checks 24 hours a day," he said. "They're a valuable tool to secure our borders. That's what they're there for." Agents in the Swanton sector confiscated 7,930 pounds of marijuana in the budget year that ended Sept. 30, almost double the amount in 2005. Overall arrests, however, dropped from 1,932 in 2005 to 1,017 in fiscal year 2009, a decline the agency attributed, in part, to the increased patrols. This week, in the backwoods and along the waterways of Vermont, it was evident the northern border differs dramatically from the border with Mexico, a 1,900-mile stretch of desert, river, and mountains that is heavily patrolled and is often demarcated by walls and barbed wire. In Vermont, on the edge of the tiny town of Holland, only a white marker and a sign warning "Arretez!" - French for "stop" - designate a boundary that is otherwise an open stretch of yellowed grass. Next to a vacant farmhouse, agent Tim Sevall noticed all-terrain vehicle tracks scratched into the ground, raising suspicions. A week ago, agents from the Newport station uncovered a couple of duffel bags in the woods near the border, filled with a potent type of marijuana. In September, acting on a tip, they caught fugitive Juan Carlos Guzman-Betancourt, a 33-year-old Colombian national who had entered illegally from Canada. He had criminal convictions in other states, an outstanding burglary charge in Nevada, and had been deported three times, according to federal court documents. It is unclear what happened to the seaplane this week, but agents said they would continue to search for it. The patrol works seven days a week, 24 hours a day, even patrolling on snowshoes in the dead of winter. To Melissa Pettersson, who owns a gift shop in downtown Newport, the increased security is necessary, but it makes her wish for the old days, when the biggest controversy in town was the decision to install stoplights on Main Street. "As much as we may dislike it, times have changed," Pettersson, 52, said with a sigh as she assembled a red and gold bow for a holiday decoration. "At the macro level it's a good thing. But at the micro level, it's like what happened to our little town? There are helicopters flying around." - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D