The discovery of eight bodies in a marshy area near Île Saint-Régis in Akwesasne Territory has highlighted a long-standing issue in the region, namely the irregular movement of people from one country to another. Canadian and American authorities have been trying to put an end to it for decades.
According to the Mohawk police of Akwesasne, those found dead were trying to get to the United States by crossing the St. Lawrence. According to deputy chief Lee-Ann O’Brien, the sinking would not be linked to the closure of Roxham Road, in Montérégie. Since March 25, it has been impossible to apply for asylum after entering the country irregularly, such as via Roxham Road.
Local police have recently seen an increase in the number of people crossing the territory to get from Canada to the United States. On March 1, a 45-year-old American was sentenced to sixty months in prison for attempting to illegally enter the United States six people of Indian origin. The smuggler’s boat sank while crossing the St. Lawrence River and the Saint-Régis River.
But such crossings have been taking place for years. In 1996, the Christian Science Monitor reported the story of Safeyban Hashi, a young man of Somali origin whose request for asylum had been refused in Canada who had crossed the St. Lawrence River by boat, before being arrested at the UNITED STATES. “The traffickers will traffic everything to make money: alcohol, illegal immigrants…”, mentioned at the time the police chief of Saint-Régis, in Akwesasne territory.
Complex territory
It is the uniqueness of the Akwesasne territory, which straddles three states — Quebec, Ontario and the United States — that makes this region a place conducive to irregular movements, and in some cases, human trafficking. and narcotics. “Given its location and access to water, Akwesasne Mohawk Territory has been designated by law enforcement as an illegal transit point for many products, including contraband tobacco,” indicated Public Security in a report published in 2019.
Due to the network of islands between the United States and Canada in the surrounding area — such as Saint-Régis, where the bodies were discovered — smugglers can travel by boat from one country to another, without necessarily being detected. This continues even in winter, explained the Macdonald-Laurier Institute in a report in 2013. “The river freezes in winter, creating several unofficial ice roads between Canada and the United States. Secret travelers can roam undetected,” it read.
The Akwesasne Mohawk Police Service has a long history of working with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) to try to end the problem. “The Akwesasne road has been known to smugglers for a long time. However, I can assure you that we are working closely with the Akwesasne police, the Sûreté du Québec detachment in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield and the Cornwall detachment and our American partners,” explained Michael Duheme, former Deputy Commissioner of the RCMP, in parliamentary committee last year.
In June 2022, the Quebec government awarded $6.2 million over 5 years to the Akwesasne police to hire five additional officers, acquire a new boat, all-terrain vehicles and snowmobiles to strengthen the fight against the illegal supply of firearms. The high number of governments operating in the territory, including indigenous organizations, “creates a complex security situation”, summed up the United States Department of Homeland Security in 2013.
Jurisdiction is “so complex” in Akwesasne, confirms Senator Bernadette Clément, who was mayor of Cornwall from 2018 to 2021. Police services operating in the region are “used to this complexity”, she says. “People in the community need to know that we have all the necessary resources [pour la coordination]. I can’t say if that’s the case, but people need to be reassured,” she says.
This story is supported by the Local Journalism Initiative, funded by the Government of Canada.