Do you know the location of the U.S. - Canadian border?

This article is already 3 years old, but it made me laugh so much I just had to post it.


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Volunteers get cold reception in Vermont

They run into protest and walk through wild to watch Canada border

By Yvonne Abraham, Globe Staff | October 16, 2005

NEWPORT, Vt. -- It's hard to save the United States from illegal immigrants when you can't find the border.

At noon yesterday, some volunteers in the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps were in this bucolic town in northern Vermont, trying to do both.

Eleven members of this citizens group had come to the Vermont-Canada border to patrol for illegal immigrants. They had intended to station themselves in Derby Line, a quaint village that straddles the border.

But these Minutemen were forced out of town by a larger crowd of protesters, who denounced their opposition to illegal immigration as a front for racism.

So the volunteers set off to watch a stretch of border on a bike path that runs along Lake Memphremagog.

Only they got lost.

Some of the men stood at a break in the path, which is crossed by the Canadian border close to where they stood. But the group's leader, Bob Casimiro of Weymouth, Mass., was not sure which way to send them.

He pointed down the path toward a footbridge. The Minutemen started walking.

''Stay within sight," he told them. Within minutes, they were out of sight.

The Minutemen were formed in Arizona by ordinary citizens who believe that the federal government is not doing enough to secure the country's borders. In April, they stationed themselves along the southwest border with Mexico, armed with binoculars and cellphones.

They alerted border patrol officers whenever they saw people crossing illegally into the United States, hoping to deter others from trying.

Last month, they announced they would start patrolling the border with Canada.

Border patrol officers are careful not to criticize the Minutemen directly. But they do point out that the officers are best qualified to watch the border.

Others were more openly critical this week. Yesterday, about 40 men and women stood in the pouring rain on the village common in Derby Line to protest the arrival of the Minutemen in town.

''They are outsiders, and we don't want them here," said David Van Deusen of Moretown, Vt., who helped to organize the protest. ''We don't want their racist policies in Vermont..."

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Back on the bike path, the three Minutemen trudged on in the rain. Finally, they knocked on Amy Audet's door to ask directions.

The border, she told them, was in the opposite direction.

Yvonne Abraham can be reached at abraham@globe.com.

for link to complete Boston Globe article click here


thanks to M.H. for letting us know about this article