Maine: Search for illegal aliens alienates city

MaineToday.com ^ | January 30, 2004 | Bill Nemitz

[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

[futureceo31]

Looks like they were going after illegals here. How do you propose going after illegals without thinking about the plan that Bush has put forward?

[eno_]

The government can peruse your medical records on demand.

The government can find all your financial resources and transactions, on demand.

The government can get all records of your electronic communications, on demand.

The government recently thinks it can stop you and demand your papers, whenever and wherever.

The government is actively pursuing a comprehensive system of surveillance of every movement, purchase, financial transaction, medical data, etc.

How free do you feel?

[SheLion]

Wouldn't the Somalian bums be happier in Canada? Does American welfare pay better than Candian welfare?

Maine is one of the poorest states in the UNION. So I GUESS we pay GREAT welfare! heh!

[FITZ]

If you're an American, you don't need to show an ID. I've been through it often enough (only 3 times) but that's because of where I live and what I was doing --- they don't ask Americans for IDs, they don't need to.

[cyborg]

Okay fair enough... but I just question how fast some people are willing to make excuses for what police/border patrol/etc. do.

[SheLion]

go back to somalia

Who? ME????? I'm was born in the U.S.A. heh! Pure blooded American.

If you mean the SOMALI'S should go back......well, they are being paid handsomely to live here. Why on earth would they go BACK? One family was given a $175,000 ranch home down there. Would you go back???!!

[Diogenesis]

Tell us how you really feel.

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

Germany 1937:

Nasir Ahmed Saul Rosenthal was behind the counter at Amei Halaal Market Bagel Land on St. John Street when agents walked in and told everyone, employees and customers alike, to get out their passports and green cards gold stars. AhmedRosenthal said some patrons eating lunch in the Somali Jewish market bolted out the back door - not because they were undocumented Jews, but because they were scared to death.

"How would you feel if you went to McDonald's Kaiserhof and got asked for ID while you were eating your food? That's what happened here," Ahmed Rosenthal asked. "Now, less people come in. We lost a lot of customers."

The agents didn't go into a McDonald's Kaiserhof --- they went into a foreign Jewish market place to look for foreigners Jews who might not be here legally or for the right reasons. They weren't bothering Americans Germans, not trying to bother Americans Germans. If you're an American a German in one of these places, they can pick that up quite quickly.

[metoooo]

whats wrong with enforcing the laws of the land and maintaining the nation's security...

[eno_]

I am in favor of a "Bracero" program. A sweep could be implemented without disrupting commerce and the lives of hard-working people that are producing anc contributing. In fact, I'm in favor of very liberal legal immigration. Legal immigration, if it is somewhat selective, is a huge benefit.

But the illegal immigration problem is a grave threat to security, a grave threat to the people due to criminality, and a great economic burden.

[Steve Eisenberg]

The government is actively pursuing a comprehensive system of surveillance of every movement, purchase, financial transaction, medical data, etc.

So where are you moving?

It does seem to me that "eno_" is confusing "the government" with MasterCard, Visa and freeCreditReport.com.

[FITZ]

Most of the border patrol guys are very polite --- it's not at all like this article implies. Illegals who get picked up definitely don't act like they were traumatized --- only inconvenienced by having to go through the bother of having to come back over. Down the street from me these two Mexican guys decided they'd make more money if they went to California so they got on their bikes and headed down I-10, they made it all the way to Deming before getting picked up --- kind of obvious that two farm-worker types riding bikes along I-10 might not be US citizens. They got a ride back to Juarez, were back "home" in two days laughing about their ordeal.

[MissAmericanPie]

If they are legal immigrants they get small business loans, housing, welfare, free schooling, medical. Yeah buddy, nothing like picking oneself up by the boot straps and building one's own future.

Oh yeah, their kids get to pay in state tuition and get twenty points added to their college entrance exam so they can beat your kid out of a place in class.

[FITZ]

Saul Rosenthal

There's a bit of a difference between being sent back home and being put into a gas chamber --- let's not go overboard with what is happening here. If you were illegally in another country because you chose to break their laws on travel or immigration, would it be so awful being sent back to the USA?

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

So I guess you wouldn't mind having the police search everyone's house whenever they want and for any reason? And, I suppose that you are for gun registration. Afterall, if you aren't breaking the law there is nothing to fear. Be a good little sheeple and do what you are told.

[cyborg]

Living where you live, you know more than me so I'll take your word for it. I just think we're giving up too much freedom in the name of 'peace and safety'

[cyborg]

I don't know which immigrants these people know, but none of my family ever got/continues to get any of those.

[FITZ]

I agree we are in other ways --- I won't fly if it means having to take off my shoes and be strip-searched. I don't like the border check points they have inside the USA --- but I honestly cannot accuse the agents of being rude or ever going overboard, I just don't like the inconvenience of having to slow down, stop and state my citizenship inside the USA --- but those have been up for sometime now. I've only had my vehicle searched at the border itself and even then for kind of funny reasons --- like they found hay in the back of my truck once and I think they thought I had had pot ---- they asked me what the green stuff was, I told them hay and they looked at me funny and asked what I had been doing with hay, and I told them because I have a horse that likes to eat --- they still had to check it out.

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

I didn't know that Jews were sent to gas chambers from the very beginning. My point is that one the government has the powr to do certain things, it is very hard to get the government to give up the power. Usually, the power increases. Kind of like a government program. Once it starts you can never get rid of it. I think my point is very valid.

[sweetliberty]

Are we supposed to feel bad that the poor illegals are being harassed by the nasty ol' border patrol instead of being given a wink and a free pass?