NORTHERN BORDER HARD TO PATROL

St. Regis Mohawk Reservation, N.Y. -- Back roads wind north through tribal
lands past small businesses, empty stretches and houses to the St. Lawrence
River. Speed markers in kilometers indicate the border crossings.

Otherwise it's hard to tell.

The border here runs through an intersection of two nations, one Indian
reservation, two tribal governments, four waterways and several islands.
It's a nightmare for federal agents. While President Bush promised to beef
up enforcement on the northern frontier following the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks, catching aliens sneaking through this sovereign pocket of land is
complicated.

Tony Moncibaiz, U.S. Border Patrol supervisory agent in Massena, said there
are areas where people "won't think twice about shooting you."

"It's very dangerous. They know who belongs and who doesn't belong. They
don't know you, they don't trust you. They don't want you around."

The Massena office covers the 36 miles from Waddington to Fort Covington in
northern New York, including eight miles through the St. Regis reservation,
which straddles the U.S.-Canadian border.

Many illegal aliens sneaking through here in the past had come from India
and Pakistan, Moncibaiz said. Post-attack scrutiny has focused on visitors
from the Middle East. But Moncibaiz said alien smugglers have been less
active since Sept. 11. He believes they don't want to risk close FBI
scrutiny and have switched to smuggling drugs.

"Since 9-11 our numbers in alien traffic have dropped. It's rock bottom,"
he said. "On the other hand, the amount of drugs we've apprehended has just
soared."

Andy Thomas, St. Regis Mohawk tribal police chief whose officers patrol the
American side of the reservation, had statistics: In 2001, some 90 aliens
were arrested in the sector. From Oct. 1 to mid-February, the total was 27.

Among drug cases for the same four months were 36 narcotics arrests,
seizure of 20 vehicles or boats, 1,044 pounds of hydroponic marijuana and
almost $500,000 in cash.

Some were people passing through, Thomas said, and some were residents.

The numbers include detentions by Thomas' 14-member department, by the 22
officers of the Akwesasne Mohawk Police on the Canadian portion of the
reservation, and by federal agents, he said.

In the region, there are as many police agencies as claims to jurisdiction.
The U.S. Justice Department held a January conference in Washington with
tribal leaders from around the U.S. to improve cooperation in border zones.

Thomas and Moncibaiz said they cooperate already. After a disagreement with
Franklin County officials two years ago, the St. Regis police lost
authority to arrest non-residents, now handled by state police in criminal
matters. However, St. Regis officers detain people for arrest by other
agencies, including aliens turned over to the Border Patrol, Thomas said.

"So we've had literally one hand tied behind our back in trying to perform
this duty," Thomas said.

Tribal officials hope to have their arrest authority restored, and have
asked the Bureau of Indian Affairs for additional funding and training,
said chief Hilda Smoke. Without that status, tribal police can't collect
forfeitures from drug busts, though they put in the overtime, and their
authority is challenged.

"We can police our own sovereign territory," Smoke said. She and tribe
spokeswoman Rowena General agreed that most of the Mohawks will say that
U.S. laws don't apply there.

Border Patrol agents said they are not welcome on the reservation.
Moncibaiz notes that even though agents have the authority to enter private
lands 25 miles from any U.S. border, they don't necessarily patrol as in
depth on the reservation because of "sovereignty issues."

He said agents do their best to catch what they can coming off the reservation.

U.S., Canadian and tribal officials agree that much of the smuggling passes
through reservation land, but the vast majority of the 14,000 Mohawks --
about half on either side of the U.S.-Canada border -- aren't involved.

"They know a lot of it is non-native trade, and we get all the blame,"
Smoke said. At a tribal meeting in late 1998, the Mohawk community on the
U.S. side gave its tribal council the mandate to get rid of the drug trade,
and the leaders faced threats from dealers, she said.

"They get all the blame, but the stuff that's moving through isn't grown or
made in Akwesasne," said Royal Canadian Mounted Police Inspector Mike
McDonell. "It's organized crime that has a few contacts within the
community, and it exploits those few contacts."

Tribal officials get phone calls complaining about the Border Patrol going
on the reservation, and about strangers walking through in early morning,
Smoke said.

But the federal agents seldom get calls from residents, Moncibaiz said. The
Border Patrol shares intelligence with the RCMP and have stopped loads of
illegal cigarettes heading north.

The Border Patrol and RCMP now coordinate patrols, carrying each other's
radios in their vehicles and boats, McDonell said. Infrared cameras and
seismic sensors are planted along the border in undisclosed locations. All
the various police agencies use a phone system for calling each other
immediately, he said, and Mounties have joint investigative teams and
patrols with Akwesasne police on the Canadian side.

McDonell noted that several aliens were caught on foot in Canada right
after Sept. 11 "because nobody would touch them." Mohawks have a long
history of working on the crews that built New York City's skyline. Many of
them had helped build the World Trade Center towers and saw them destroyed.
While some Mohawks might once have regarded the alien traffic as just
helping families find better lives, McDonell said, "The taste was lost for
doing that."