“One, if by land, and two, if by sea” stems from Paul Revere's Ride by the poet Henry W. Longfellow. The signal originated from the Old North Church in Boston during the time of the Revolutionary War.
The section might be too small for the lanterns needed to warn of the U.S. border patrol. The latest issue concerns disputed waters in the Grey Zone, 700 square kilometres surrounding Machias Seal Island (pictured above) near Maine and New Brunswick.
The border patrol is looking for illegal immigrants, according to reports from fishing vessels questioned by the U.S. border patrol.
We previously reported that the border patrol was performing questionably constitutional searches on U.S. roads. Those searches had a slim chance of finding illegal immigrants.
You could look at their actions as harassing Canadians harvesting seafood. Let's look at the potential audience of people from these searches.
- Canadians harvesting seafood.
- Migrants from a 3rd country (not U.S. or Canada) trying to come into the United States.
- Canadians using fishing vessels to enter the United States.
Canadians harvesting seafood would need to go back to Canada to sell their seafood. Migrants from a 3rd country already in Canada would have every reason to stay in Canada. Even if they want to go to the United States, they wouldn't do so now. The United States doesn't offer advantages in comparison to Canada on multiple fronts.
Even if someone fell in these categories, they still can't make a claim of asylum or refugee status without being on U.S. soil. By that logic, a U.S. citizen could "claim" to be in Canada in those same waters.
Any Canadian that would be investigated would literally be doing nothing wrong.
On U.S. soil, you can debate about whether someone belongs. In disputed waters, there is no claim.
How to celebrate Canada Day 2018
CanadianCrossing.com border crossings coverage
The searches on the water fall into stronger legal territory since the U.S. claims these waters. For U.S. taxpayers, the question to ask is why your tax dollars are being wasted on these searches.
These actions aren't sending a message about U.S. territory rights in these specific waters. These actions are about exerting power no matter how ridiculous it looks.
If the U.S. border patrol was truly concerned about wayward Canadians reaching U.S. soil, they could patrol the boats looking for ships that actually are running toward Maine instead of ships that will go back to New Brunswick.
CanadianCrossing.com Canadian politics coverage
CanadianCrossing.com Donald Trump coverage
The U.S. strategy in all of these actions is perplexing. Will Canada capitulate on NAFTA or softwood lumber or auto production over Canadian seafood harvesters being harassed? The opposite is more likely to happen.
We know there will be a next step but we don't know what that will be. When the next step comes, we will be there with a report.
photo credit: Google maps
Comments