Mohawk Smugglers
Over the past few years, upstate New York has seen a surge in illegal alien and drug smuggling traffic. Members of the St Regis Mohawk Indian Reservation have forged a highway for traffickers. Illegal aliens cross the St. Lawrence River through the reservation at Akwesasne, NY.
The reservation, conservative columnist Michelle Malkin writes, has been a "hotspot for criminal alien smugglers assisted by tribal members. Immigration officials estimate that between 300 and 500 illegal aliens a month have entered the United States through the reservation in recent years. One Mohawk, Charlie Little Tree, estimated that 1000 and 8,000 tribal members are involved in the alien smuggling trade.
From the reservation, the illegal aliens are driven through the Adirondack Mountains to Manhattan. There is no comprehensive or accurate information or estimate by U.S. officials as to how many illegal aliens enter the United States from Canada, but the numbers are growing, the Washington Times concluded.
The 300,000 immigrants a year that enter Canada still include terrorists looking for refuge. Canada still does not detain refugee claimants, even those with questionable backgrounds, according to the Washington Times. Ten thousand of these refugees a year disappear into Canada's ethnic communities.
Terrorists continue to come in from Canada and hide among the millions of illegal aliens already here from Afghanistan, Pakistan Yemen, Algeria and sixty other countries that annually sneak across the Canadian border. From 2,000 to 5,000 terrorists are said to be in the United States although a true figure is impossible to assess, according to the Washington Times.
Not all the blame lies with Canada, according to former Republican Congressman Jack Metcalf. "A country with no borders is no country at all." The Clinton administration didn't do its job in protecting our borders, particularly here in the north. The Bush administration has been lax on its stewardship of the southern border because of its close relationship with Mexican President Vicente Fox.
The challenge in the North is to protect daily shipment of $1.4 billion in trade. "Our top priority is to stop terrorists and weapons of mass destruction from entering the country, but we can't choke off trade in doing so," Kevin Weeks, CBP director of field operations in Detroit told the Washington Times.
Whatever the political and economic agenda, most sources conclude that terrorists, illegal aliens and drug smugglers continue to pour into the United States over the mostly unguarded Canadian border.
Dr. Martin Brass is an International Lawyer and longtime contributor to SOF.
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© 2004 Soldier of Fortune Magazine. All rights reserved. All opinions expressed in this article are the author's, and do not necessarily reflect those of Military.com.
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