DERBY LINE, Vt. – U.S. Border Patrol agents from the Newport Station apprehended seven Romanian citizens and four French citizens as they attempted to illegally enter the United States in Derby Line, Vermont on Saturday.
During the early morning hours of March 3, the Tactical Communications Center of the Swanton Border Patrol Sector received a report that two vehicles had crossed the international border by driving over the sidewalk west of the Haskell Free Library in Derby Line, Vermont. The Haskell Free Library was deliberately built on the border of Canada and the United States in 1904.
“The Law Enforcement Communications Assistants (LECA) at the Tactical Communications Center play a vital role in safeguarding America’s borders,” said Newport Station Patrol Agent in Charge Richard Ross. “They were able to quickly and accurately provide information to agents in the field, enabling them to locate the vehicles and make the apprehensions.”
The LECAs notified agents that the vehicles were driving onto the on-ramp onto the southbound lanes of Interstate 91. Agents located the vehicles and stopped them after they exited Interstate 91 at exit 27 in Newport, VT. Inside the two vehicles were four French citizens, two adults and two children, and seven Romanian citizens, four adults and three children. During questioning, the adults in the vehicles admitted that they were not citizens of the United States and that they did not possess any immigration documentation allowing them to enter or remain in the United States.
Agents arrested the six adults and transported the vehicles’ occupants to the Newport Border Patrol Station for records checks and processing. After processing, agents turned over all 11 illegal aliens over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office of Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) for removal proceedings.
The Swanton Sector is responsible for securing the land border between ports of entry in Vermont, New Hampshire and northeastern New York. The coordination with assistance of citizens is invaluable to the Border Patrol's border security mission and we welcome community members' help to keep our nation’s borders safe. Please report suspicious activity at 1-800-689-3362.
For more on Customs and Border Protection’s mission at our nation’s ports of entry with CBP officers and along U.S. borders with Border Patrol agents, please visit the Border Security section of the CBP website.