Posted on 01/31/2004 5:56:03 AM PST by SheLion
Their boss insists that they're not trying to act like jerks. It's just that the border patrol agents who descended on Portland last weekend are new to Maine and, this being the dead of winter and all, they apparently can't help themselves.
"A lot of our agents are just off the southern (U.S.) border and there's a different atmosphere down there," said Monte J. Bennett, assistant chief patrol agent for the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection in Houlton. "There are a lot more numbers down there. Things are more aggressive."
In other words, if you're an immigrant in Maine these days, you'd best double-check your papers before you go anywhere and learn to say "Yes, sir" and "No, sir" to anyone in a black uniform and boots. And oh yes, try not to look suspicious.
"My business is down 80 percent since Saturday," lamented Juan Gonzalez, owner of La Bodega Latina Grocery Store on Congress Street. "Customers call me on the phone saying, 'Is it clear? Can we come down?' People are really afraid."
According to bureau spokesman Bennett, what happened Saturday in Portland was a typical "transportation sweep" in which federal agents - many recently transferred here as part of a south-to-north shift in homeland security forces - visited Portland's airport, train and bus stations in search of illegal aliens.
They netted 10 people whose papers failed to pass muster. At the same time, they left Portland's hard-won reputation as an immigrant-friendly city in tatters.
Nasir Ahmed was behind the counter at Amei Halaal Market on St. John Street when agents walked in and told everyone, employees and customers alike, to get out their passports and green cards. Ahmed said some patrons eating lunch in the Somali market bolted out the back door - not because they were undocumented, but because they were scared to death.
"How would you feel if you went to McDonald's and got asked for ID while you were eating your food? That's what happened here," Ahmed asked. "Now, less people come in. We lost a lot of customers."
Mohammed Barre, who was in the store at the time, said much of the anxiety could have been avoided if the agents had clearly identified themselves (several eyewitnesses said they didn't) and, before coming through the door, had taken the chips off their shoulders.
"Unfriendly," Barre replied when asked to describe the agents' demeanor. "Very unfriendly."
Bennett insisted that the operation targeted only Portland's "transportation hubs," not its immigrant enclaves. He added, however, that the agents will investigate anything "that needs investigating."
Would two stores with foreign names, frequented by people with dark skin, each a block or two from the Vermont Transit bus station "need investigating"?
"Based solely on that, no," Bennett replied. "They go more by people's mannerisms."
Thus, we are asked to believe, it was a citywide outbreak of "mannerisms" that attracted agents to Amei Halaal Market, La Bodega Latina and even the Preble Street Resource Center, where director Mark Swann has vowed that the next time agents show up, they'll be asked for a search warrant.
(Lest we all think the agents' attitudes began and ended with immigrants, consider my daughter's welcome Saturday upon arriving in Portland by bus from Boston: After she gave a border agent her license, he demanded her passport. She correctly told him that U.S. citizens don't need passports for interstate travel. "Let me give you a word of advice," he replied tersely. "You need to learn to watch your mouth.")
Where all this tension goes from here is anyone's guess.
Meetings are already being held among Portland's immigrant elders and leaders. And the Latino Health and Community Service has called off its Feb. 14 health fair because, director John Connors explained, "I'm not going to put up posters telling these guys we're going to have a bunch of minorities and immigrants showing up at a particular time and place."
Bennett calls such fears unfounded. If confronted by a federal agent, he said, all anyone has to do is "be friendly, be straightforward and answer their questions."
And above all, watch your mannerisms.
Columnist Bill Nemitz can be contacted at 791-6323 or at: bnemitz@pressherald.com
There is a big difference in taking what you earn and distributing it to the non-productive and in preventing you from making your money by exploiting others.
No it isn't. The net effect is that you cause the employer to pay more for a service than it is actually worth. This is in fact the same thing as taking money from someone. You don't believe in freedom or in the free market. Apparently, you believe that the nanny state intervening between willing workers and willing employers is somehow beneficial. Your views are very much like the patronizing liberals who believe that everyone needs their help. The government actually causes many of the problems that we have by interfering with the free market (as a result of do-gooders such as yourself).
Perhaps you think you have the right to use people who are at a disadvantage for your personal financial gain.
Apparently you think you have the right to interfere with the contract formed by two willing adults (employer and employee). Perhaps we should simply ban private property and force citizens to pay 100% of their earnings to the federal government so that the government can ensure that everyone has the same amount of money?
don't agree that you do, even if the law did allow it. In effect, all you're doing is contributing more of your tax dollars for redistribution anyway, to subsidize those you are underpaying in the first place.
Why should the government force me to subsidize anyone in the first place?
Will you at least admit that you are a socialist? If you don't think you are, please explain the difference between you and a socialist. Another question for you, since you support the minimum wage. Why is the minimum wage $5.35/hr? Some call for an increase to over $7.00/hr? What do you think the right number is? Would you support a $50/hr minimum wage? Why or why not? What would be the consequence of making a $50 minimum wage? Looking forward to your answers....
"We have become a nation of slaves. The slavemasters wield the Constitution like a weapon to uphold perversity and weak-mindedness and dishonesty and Godlessness while not allowing the Constitution to protect innocence or tradition, goodness or truth or Godliness. They require the cover of darkness to do their dirty deeds and will run roughshod over anything of the light. Anything that promises to bring the typical democrat voter out of that ignorance is perceived as a threat. If they lose the issues that appeal to the gut reaction of the ignorant they have nothing. I'm sure there are exceptions to my description, but I believe the ones I described are what makes the RATS so dangerous.
Where exactly is the minimum wage (or the right of the federal government to interfere with citizens business affairs) mentioned?
How horrible! Imagine..."Illegal Infiltrators" being treated like SMOKERS!!! How DARE They!
Hey, Juan...if they were there LEGALLY, they wouldn't be CALLING you!
Maybe the BP should set up shop in HIS shop, and answer the phone saying "All Clear Jefe!"
I'm in YOUR boat!
The problem is that many, perhaps most Moslems applaud and support Bin Laden and his goals. They may not strap on a bomb themselves, but the ululating hag celebrating 9/11 in Gaza was not unrepresentative.
Yeah, a billion people can all be wrong. That many were wrong to follow Mao and the Gang of Four. Just because Islam is a religion and not purely a political movement doesn't mean it can't be as illegitimate and murdurous as Mao, Stalin, or Hitler's cults.
Of course not.. even the dead vote in democrat dominated states.. multiple times and often.. Voteing places in Mexifornia are a circle jerks..
Very good.
Who demanded we even have a minimum wage in the first place, socialists or capitalists?
Most of us realize how corrupt any government "protection" agency can be. God help the employer who steps out of line. Hell, not even religious organizations are immune from "big daddy with a BIG stick!" Remember Waco or Ruby Ridge?
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