Pubdate: Sun, 24 Aug 2008
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Page: A - 4
Copyright: 2008 The Washington Post Company
Contact:  http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388
Author: Keith B. Richburg, Washington Post
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Border+Patrol
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Homeland+Security

CANADIAN BORDER NO LONGER INVISIBLE IN VERMONT

Derby Line, Vt. -- The changes started coming slowly to this small 
town where the U.S. border with Canada runs across sleepy streets, 
through houses and families, and smack down the middle of the shared 
local library.

First was the white, painted lettering on the pavement on three 
little side streets - "Canada" on one side, "U.S.A." on the other. 
Then came the white pylons denoting which side of the border was 
which. After that, signboards were erected on some streets, ordering 
drivers to turn back and use an officially designated entry point.

And along with the signposts came an influx of American Border Patrol 
agents, cruising through the town in their sport-utility vehicles 
with sirens, chasing down cars and mopeds that ignored the posted warnings.

For longtime residents accustomed to a simpler life that flowed 
freely across a largely invisible border, the final shock - and what 
made most people really take notice - was a proposal by the border 
agents last year to erect fences on the small streets to officially 
barricade Derby Line from Stanstead, Quebec, and neighbor from neighbor.

"They're stirring up a little hate and discontent with that deal," 
said Claire Currier, who grew up in this border area and works at 
Brown's Drug Store, which has operated on the same spot since 1884. 
"We've all intermingled for years."

For the Department of Homeland Security, the changes are part of a 
gradual fortification of America's northern border that began shortly 
after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and has accelerated in 
recent years.

The hardening of the northern frontier is unsettling to many in the 
small towns along the border. For as long as most of these people can 
remember, the line between the United States and Canada has been 
little more than a historic curiosity, rather than the hard and fast 
demarcation that is America's southern border.

Named the Secure Border Initiative, the project calls for more than 
tripling the number of agents along the northern border, adding boats 
and helicopters, and deploying sophisticated new technology including 
hundreds of millions of dollars in new communications equipment, 
radiation detectors and three different types of camera-mounted 
sensors in the uninhabited wooded areas.

"It was freer before, but we live in a different world now," said 
agent Mark Henry, the operations officer at the Border Patrol's 
Swanton Sector, headquartered in Swanton, Vt. The sector encompasses 
about 24,000 square miles, extending from the town of Champlain, in 
upstate New York, on the east all the way across to the border with 
Maine. The sector now has 250 agents, up from 180 three years ago, 
and the number is scheduled to reach 300 next year. In 2001, there 
were 340 agents along the entire border with Canada.

"9/11 changed everything," said Border Patrol agent Fernando Beltran, 
the operations chief for Swanton Sector's Newport station, which 
includes Derby Line. "This may have been Mayberry before, but it's 
not anymore."

Residents of this town of 776 understand the need for enhanced 
security. They also wistfully remember a time when neighbors easily 
crossed into another country to visit neighbors. People went to 
church and to school on either side of the line. Members of the same 
family lived on either side. Some streets, an old factory, the local 
library and opera house, and a few houses straddle the line.

"I have one brother - he's American. He was born on the U.S. side. I 
was born on the Canadian side," said Arthur Brewer, who is 76. "It 
was like there was no border."

Townsfolk are concerned about practical issues with fences. The two 
sides share a water system, a sewer system and snow-removal services. 
For years, the fire departments of both sides have helped each other 
without regard to a border, and fences, they fear, might disrupt 
travel routes for emergency vehicles.

"It hasn't been an easy issue for either side to digest," said 
lifelong resident Karen Jenne, the Derby Line town clerk and 
treasurer. "But we understand that Border Patrol and Homeland 
Security have a job to do."

The new vigilance has led to more arrests of people crossing 
illegally and interdiction of contraband, mostly drugs. Border agents 
in this sector said that last year they arrested people from 117 
different countries trying to enter the United States illegally.

The resources here are still a small fraction of what is deployed on 
the southern border with Mexico. But with the increased Border Patrol 
presence, the North is starting to look more like what border 
residents of Texas, California and Arizona have been seeing for years.

This article appeared on  of the San Francisco Chronicle 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake