Crossing Our Northern Border

Recently, two men were arrested for illegally crossing our northern border into Maine from Canada. One was from Guatemala, the other from Mexico, and that seems like an odd border for people from either of these countries to be crossing.

Maine is bordered by Canada on all sides other than the south, so there is no place in Maine that is more than a hundred miles from the border, which means that ICE has jurisdiction to pull people over anywhere in Maine. I don't see them doing that often, though, although it's not unusual to see ICE cars parked along Route 11, which would be the alternate route south from the northern border, for those who wanted to avoid the Interstate. Every now and then, they will stop all traffic heading north on I-95. They did that about one week before the September 11 Trade Tower attacks, so they knew something was going on, but obviously did not apprehend the terrorists, who had crossed into the country from Canada into Maine.

With such a large border with Canada, there are many places where people can cross besides the official crossing points. In fact, at least one of the official crossing points is closed at night. I haven't been there at night, so I don't know if it's possible to drive around the barricades or not, however.

There are logging roads that connect with Canada, which apparently can be crossed with a car, although they'd be driving through the woods on something that is not an official road. These crossings are not manned but there are hidden cameras and trigger points that probably do a good job of alerting the Border Patrol or ICE to any illegal crossings by car, but I am sure that people would be able to cross through the woods if they were willing to walk across. They probably have cameras hidden in the most likely of these crossings as well, though.

When we're up north, we often eat at a restaurant across from the international bridge in Fort Kent. Watching cars cross into the United States, there seems to be a pause of only a minute coming across to the US side, while it takes longer for people to cross into Canada. Of course, some people get shunted off for further questioning.