Issues → March/April 2009 → Interact → 10 Things to Do →

Yankee Classic: US/Canadian Border Crossings 25 Years Ago

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(page 5 of 6)

Despite help from local contacts, sensors, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Doug Kruhm's job is not an easy one as he takes his turn behind the engine of the big green and white LTD of the Border Patrol. It is made difficult by the increasingly sophisticated techniques of smugglers who not only bring in aliens for a price, but who also actively recruit people in their native countries. The smuggler's normal fee is about $1,200 to $2,000 but, perhaps realizing that few people from Third World countries can afford that much, a few smuggling rings now operate on credit. So the rings send emissaries to underdeveloped nations. There they promise villagers plane tickets to Montreal or Toronto, guides to take them across the border, rides to New York or other large cities, apartments once they arrive, and jobs to support themselves. The catch, of course, is that once the aliens are set up in the United States they become indentured servants to the rings who brought them here.

Policies on both sides of the Canadian border also contribute to an increase in the illegal traffic. Citizens of 76 countries can enter Canada without a visa. And in the large ethnic communities of Montreal and Toronto, it is a fairly simple task for an alien to contact a smuggling ring. Many of the airport cab drivers are more than willing to help their native sons and to earn finder's fees in the process. On the American side, there is a waiting labor market for illegal aliens. The homes of many wealthy and - presently - law-abiding citizens are staffed by illegal aliens who were recruited and smuggled in to become domestic servants. Referring to service and manufacturing industries, Larry Teverbaugh, Chief Patrol Agent of the Swanton sector observes, "These groups don't want to lose the aliens' help. The illegals have experience in these fields."

Chief Teverbaugh is a handsome man with a strong nose, pale blue eyes, and salt-and- pepper hair. Close to retirement now, he first entered the Border Patrol in 1960 and came to Swanton in June 1980. His office is immaculate and the phones on his desk are at precisely the correct angle to his chair. "There is no way," he says, "that we would or could round up all the people illegally crossing our borders and remove them from our country. I don't think the American people are ready for that or that they would stand for it."

In order to preserve our present immigration policies, Swanton's border patrolmen drive 80 to 90 miles a day, working particular eight-hour shifts for periods of two weeks. "All together," says Chief Teverbaugh, "our agents drive about 90,000 to 100,000 miles a month. That's a lot of mileage, and we didn't have a mechanic when I first came here. We have our own maintenance man at the station now, and he saves us a lot of money. More sensors and remote-controlled cameras will allow us to keep up with the increase in illegal crossings, but there is no real substitute for the agent who knows his territory."

Based on reports he receives from various sources and the physical signs left along trails and roads that cross the border, Chief Teverbaugh estimates his agents stop about 75 percent of the people illegally entering his sector. Doug Kruhm agrees. "Many of the trails are almost ethnically owned," he adds. "We used to have a lot of Greeks coming through Beecher Falls, Vermont, until we caught 15 in a 30-day period and impounded all their cars. Now Haitians come through Champlain, Portuguese through Alburg, Guyanese through Roxam Road near Champlain, and Turks and Armenians through Alburg Springs. Aggressive prosecution of smugglers like Sam Bishop has helped to keep the numbers reasonable, though."