Immigrant Ring at U.S.-Canada Border Cracked

They came through Mohawk territory, thousands of illegal Chinese immigrants crossing the mighty St. Lawrence River from Canada to New York in the rural tranquillity of an Indian reservation.

Federal authorities Thursday announced the breakup of the largest immigrant smuggling conspiracy ever uncovered on the United States’ northern border--and warned that the frontier with Canada could be as porous as that with Mexico.

For at least two years, Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner Doris Meissner said, a ring of Chinese smugglers had quietly ferried up to 150 people a month through the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation and down to New York City.

The price of a one-way ticket: up to $47,000. “An outrageous sum,” Atty. Gen. Janet Reno said Thursday.

The enterprise--estimated to have raked in more than $170 million--collapsed this week after U.S., Canadian and tribal police agents arrested 35 people on conspiracy and smuggling charges. At least a dozen more suspects were being sought.

The alleged smugglers exploited Canada’s generous refugee laws, the desires of Chinese families to be reunited with relatives and a soft spot in the U.S. border, authorities said.

“The northern border is protected by a very thin line of enforcement,” acknowledged Thomas Maroney, U.S. attorney in Albany, N.Y.

The St. Regis reservation, known as Akwesasne--the land where the partridge drums--spans the U.S.-Canadian border and includes about 20 islands in the St. Lawrence River.

“The geography of Akwesasne is perfect for smuggling,” Maroney said. “You have alcohol and tobacco going north and drugs going in both directions. It’s lightly patrolled compared to the southwest border.”

But weekly appearances of groups of Chinese people on the reservation attracted suspicion. Residents alerted tribal police, who got in touch with the Border Patrol.

The immigrants from Fujian province included many middle-class people. The province, on China’s southern coast, has been designated a special economic development zone. Most of the immigrants were young men, but Border Patrol agent Ed Duda said some families and elderly people also made the trip.

Most of the estimated 3,600 illegal immigrants brought in by the ring are believed to be living in the United States. Very few have been detained.

At least one trip across the St. Lawrence ended in tragedy. Agent Duda said an elderly woman died of hypothermia about two years ago after the boat she was on sank. “The typical smuggler,” he said, “doesn’t have a life preserver.”