New Brunswick's provincial flag flies on a flag pole in Ottawa, July 6, 2020.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
American officials say Border Patrol agents in Maine recently accused 13 foreign nationals – seven adults from Mexico and six from Vietnam – of illegally entering the United States from two locations in western New Brunswick.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency issued a statement Thursday saying human smuggling along the Maine-New Brunswick border may not be as big a problem as elsewhere along the U.S. border, but this “transnational criminal activity” is cause for concern.
The agency says cold temperatures at this time of year can quickly lead to life-threatening conditions.
Border Patrol officials say the suspects from Mexico were arrested on Jan. 19 after agents were alerted to a potential illegal entry and later spotted footprints near Caswell, Maine, which is west of Grand Falls in northwestern New Brunswick.
One of the accused was showing signs of frostbite and was taken to the local hospital.
On Jan. 20, Border Patrol agents based in Calais, Maine, pulled over a suspicious vehicle in Lambert Lake, Maine, which is west of the border crossing at St. Croix in southwestern New Brunswick.
Six adult Vietnamese passengers were accused of illegally entering the U.S., and the vehicle’s driver – a U.S. citizen – was detained for suspicion of human smuggling.
In both cases, the foreign nationals were each fined $5,000 and were processed for removal from the U.S.