Canada Border

Harassment at the Mexican Border? What About the Canada Border?
Immigrant advocates from across the U.S. are in Detroit for a two-day conference aimed at finding ways to stop what they say is a growing problem of federal agents profiling and harassing minorities near the border.
The Northern Border Conference started today and looks at the issue of how groups like Latinos are treated near the border with Canada. Much of the national attention on border issues deals with the southern U.S. border with Mexico, but advocates say they are now seeing an increase in the targeting of minority groups near the border with Canada.
Southwest Detroit – the heart of the region’s Mexican-American population – is near the border with Canada and has had issues with federal agents over the past year. Some Latinos say they’ve been increasingly stopped and harassed by immigration agents with the Department of Homeland Security. The department has stepped up its enforcement near borders to stop illegal immigration, but some say the crackdown has spilled over to affect legal immigrants and even U.S. citizens.
“Latinos and Arab-Americans are being stopped for no reason while they’re walking down the street, waiting for a bus, or driving,” said Ryan Bates, director for the Michigan branch of the Alliance for Immigrants Rights and Reform. “There is some pretty crass racial profiling across the northern border.”
Last year, federal agents conducted raids in Detroit outside an elementary school and Catholic church that are heavily Latino, sparking renewed concern. Latino social service agencies say they have been targeted by agents who stake out their buildings. In addition, Muslims and Arab-Americans say they’ve been detained and interrogated at border crossings for no legitimate reason.
But an internal review last year by Immigration Customs Enforcement found that its agents were not guilty of the allegations made in Detroit.
A spokesman for the Detroit office of the Department of Homeland Security did not comment today about the conference. In the past, officials have said their agents do not racially profile. The head of the department, Secretary Janet Napolitano, told the Free Press last year she was concerned about the raid on the Detroit church and would look into that case.
The conference includes advocates from the state of Washington, New York, San Diego, New Mexico, and other border areas.
Christian Ramirez of San Diego, with the U.S.-Mexico Border Program of the American Friends Service Committee, spoke at the conference today. He said that harassment has long been an issue for Latinos in the southwest U.S.
He said “it’s getting worse” as agents become more aggressive in recent years. “It should not be tolerated,” he said.