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Maine: Search for illegal aliens alienates city
MaineToday.com ^ | January 30, 2004 | Bill Nemitz

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


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; US: Maine
KEYWORDS: aliens; authorities; illegal; search; seizure; terror
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To: sweetliberty
Wrong answer.

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....

201 posted on 01/31/2004 4:00:01 PM PST by ItisaReligionofPeace (I'm from the government and I'm here to help.)
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To: sweetliberty
From your home page:

"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?

202 posted on 01/31/2004 4:03:42 PM PST by ItisaReligionofPeace (I'm from the government and I'm here to help.)
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Comment #203 Removed by Moderator

To: ItisaReligionofPeace
As far as I am concerned, being in the United States is not a right for just everyone. There are responsibilities that go along with being a citizen here and getting all the entitlements one can get as a great many of these people are doing is draining us. I don't want this great country to become a police state either but we have to find a way to crack down on illegal immigrants and to deport those who verify on their legal visa's that they are financially responsible for themselves and then run to the nearest Public Aid office as soon as their feet hit the ground here.
204 posted on 01/31/2004 4:57:03 PM PST by LoudRepublicangirl (loudrepublicangirl)
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To: ItisaReligionofPeace; FatherOfLiberty; Servant of the 9; null and void; Budge; TheBattman; ...
Perhaps I am not making myself understood, or maybe I am accurate in my perseption that "itsareligionofpeace" is being deliberately obtuse, but I tire of the asinine arguments. Perhaps some of you could review my posts to him and his replies and better explain the economic issue we're dealing with here than I can. I didn't think my posts were that hard to understand, but he thinks I'm a socialist now because I don't want our country overrun with illegals and I want those who employ them to be held accountable. Did I fail to make that clear?
205 posted on 01/31/2004 4:58:41 PM PST by sweetliberty (To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it.")
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To: SheLion
Good post and replies.
206 posted on 01/31/2004 4:59:04 PM PST by 4.1O dana super trac pak (Base to President Bush. Hello?)
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To: FITZ
Most guys named "Ahmed" are liars.
207 posted on 01/31/2004 5:00:13 PM PST by LoudRepublicangirl (loudrepublicangirl)
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To: sweetliberty
Yes, please call in the calvary. I simply asked you what the minimum wage rate should be? All of these issues are linked (by Socialism).
208 posted on 01/31/2004 5:25:57 PM PST by ItisaReligionofPeace (I'm from the government and I'm here to help.)
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To: LoudRepublicangirl
How about closing the entitlement err, I mean Public Aid office for a start?
209 posted on 01/31/2004 5:26:45 PM PST by ItisaReligionofPeace (I'm from the government and I'm here to help.)
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To: ItisaReligionofPeace
Sound good to me.
210 posted on 01/31/2004 5:28:20 PM PST by LoudRepublicangirl (loudrepublicangirl)
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To: SheLion
"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."

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!"

211 posted on 01/31/2004 5:32:26 PM PST by Itzlzha (The avalanche has already started...it is too late for the pebbles to vote!)
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To: sweetliberty
but he thinks I'm a socialist now because I don't want our country overrun with illegals and I want those who employ them to be held accountable. Did I fail to make that clear?

I'm in YOUR boat!

212 posted on 01/31/2004 5:44:35 PM PST by SheLion (Curiosity killed the cat BUT satisfaction brought her back!!!)
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To: ItisaReligionofPeace
http://taor.agitator.dynip.com/on_law.htm
213 posted on 01/31/2004 6:17:11 PM PST by agitator (The 9th Amendment says what?)
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To: ItisaReligionofPeace
If most of the followers weren't peaceful things would be much different. There are a billion of them.

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.

214 posted on 01/31/2004 6:25:18 PM PST by eno_ (Freedom Lite - it's almost worth defending)
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To: eno_
Yes, a billion people can be wrong, but just under Mao, it only takes a relatively small population to cause havoc. This is true of every group.
215 posted on 01/31/2004 6:36:13 PM PST by ItisaReligionofPeace (I'm from the government and I'm here to help.)
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To: eno_
[ The future is now. Do you think they(illegal aliens) wait for legal status to vote? ]

Of course not.. even the dead vote in democrat dominated states.. multiple times and often.. Voteing places in Mexifornia are a circle jerks..

216 posted on 01/31/2004 6:42:27 PM PST by hosepipe
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To: sweetliberty
Good discussion ping.

Very good.

217 posted on 01/31/2004 8:35:07 PM PST by Budge ( <>< .)
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To: ItisaReligionofPeace
There is nothing "free market", about allowing illegals living ten to an apartment to depress fair market wages that are determined honestly by the absence of artificial influences.

I don't know what kind of snake oil you think you're trying to sell here, but you won't find a market for it.
218 posted on 01/31/2004 8:37:20 PM PST by MissAmericanPie
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To: ItisaReligionofPeace
I simply asked you what the minimum wage rate should be? All of these issues are linked (by Socialism).

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?

219 posted on 01/31/2004 8:45:31 PM PST by Budge ( <>< .)
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To: sweetliberty
I'm going to have nightmares..
LOTS of them..
Ms.B
220 posted on 01/31/2004 8:57:39 PM PST by MS.BEHAVIN (Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. Re-elect G.W.Bush)
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