U.S. Border Patrol trying to help, not stop, asylum seekers

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/02/2017 (2828 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The U.S. Border Patrol says the number of asylum seekers crossing into Canada on foot from North Dakota may be growing but they’re not beefing up resources or stopping anyone from leaving their country — they’re just trying to prevent anyone from freezing to death on the way out.

“We’ve been looking at this issue back to 2010,” said Chief Patrol Agent Aaron M. Heitke of the Grand Forks sector. “It’s not a new issue but it’s received a lot more attention recently,” he said in a teleconference Wednesday afternoon with reporters on both sides of the border.

“We’ve been keeping an eye on this issue,” Heitke said. “Basically, what we’re seeing is growing numbers of individuals crossing illegally into Canada,” said Heitke, who didn’t have any data to back that up but said the Canada Border Services Agency is keeping track. The rise in the number of asylum seekers on foot hasn’t led to any increase in resources for the U.S. Border Patrol, he said. “We maintain a steady presence in the area.”

The border patrol in North Dakota and the RCMP are co-ordinating efforts to make sure those risking life and limb to cross into Canada get there safely, said Heitke.

“Specifically, we work with our Canadian partners daily.” The U.S. Border Patrol is in radio contact with its Canadian counterparts “to make sure they know what’s heading north up to their area,” said Heitke.

“Basically what we do is real-time interaction over the radio,” said Heitke. “If we see a group of people heading into Canada and in close proximity to the border, we call them and give them a description of people and where they’re at so they can intercept them.”

They’re not looking for the border jumpers to arrest them — they’re there to help them when they’re in trouble, Heitke said.

“It’s not a crime to be on the border,” said Heitke. “We’re most often called when it’s a rescue situation: Someone called 911 because they’re lost or too cold to move. We go and help them,” he said. “There’s not a crime there for us to arrest them.” If they see people heading for the Canadian border, all they can do is make sure they get to the other side alive by letting their “partners” to the north — the RCMP — know there’s a group heading towards them.

“Our message is a humanitarian message,” said Heitke. “A lot of these folks come from African countries,” he said. They’re unfamiliar with “brutally cold” North Dakota winters. “When they walk across the field with a 20-mile-an-hour wind, people can get in trouble,” he said. Trekking for hours in the bitter cold and being unprepared for the weather puts people’s lives at risk.

“We want to discourage that,” Heitke said.

There’s not a lot the border patrol can do to discourage the refugee claimants, though, he said, other than get the word out about the danger to the groups making the trek.

“What we have done is get some information back to the communities where we know folks are coming from,” Heitke said. “We’ve made some contacts with consulate offices to put out some travel warnings so they can let their citizens know just how cold it is here – so they have a little more of an idea.”

On Tuesday, a Somali community leader in Minneapolis said he was going on an ethnic radio program and social media to advise Somalis not to make the trip. The Twin Cities are home to 200,000 ethnic Somalis, the largest Somali community in the U.S. Most of the refugee claimants crossing into Canada at Emerson are Somali, the CBSA has reported. But they’re not all coming from Minnesota, said Heitke.

“They’re coming from all over, not any one particular state,” he said. “We’re going to see more people out of St. Paul/Minneapolis but not exclusively (from) there.”

Officials are investigating reports of smugglers from Minnesota dropping asylum seekers off in the freezing cold in North Dakota and telling them to walk toward the Canadian border, said Heitke. The U.S. Border Patrol questions the refugee claimants they’ve rescued in North Dakota. They’re asked how much and who they paid, he said. “We’re going to be asking them about that sort of thing.”

Heitke said he’s not sure why there are so many more asylum seekers fleeing the U.S. for Canada lately but he thinks the tide will continue to rise with the temperature.

“Obviously, with the rise in numbers we’ve seen, we are concerned that the numbers will go up as the weather warms up,” he said.

With spring, the melting snow will fill ditches and make fields muddy and present a new set of hazardous conditions.

“It’s going to be very wet out here soon,” said Heitke. “We don’t know what the numbers are going to do.”

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca