Ever felt nervous crossing the U.S. border, even though you’ve done nothing wrong? If you ever crossed at Peace Arch, you may have had good reason.
A U.S. border guard who no longer works at the crossing admitted to harassing non-residents of all kinds, mostly Canadians.
In dozens of cases, Joel Helle banned them from entering the country at all. Now officials are investigating the former guard’s record to find out if he abused his authority.
It is called an expedited removal. Each individual CBP officer has the ability to bar a non-U.S. citizen from entering the country for a period of five years.
Get daily National news
According to the CBP out of 400 or so removals in the last four years in Blaine, Helle was responsible for 55 of them. Those decisions are now under review.
“Officer Helle’s particular expedited removals are being reviewed at the request of the attorneys who sent a letter to the director of field operations,” says Mike Milne with US Customs and Border Patrol.
Joel Helle has a checkered past at the world’s longest undefended border. In 2009, he pepper sprayed a Canadian after the driver was too slow to respond to a command to turn off the engine.
Just last month, he pleaded guilty to a road rage incident after he chocked a Canadian driver off duty.
In court documents, he brags about barring thousands of Canadians from the country.
“It is unfortunate that in a case like this where you’ve got a man like Joel Helle, and he was clearly acting in a way that you would want to question his judgment. Now he is the face of that difficult job that must be done at the border, it is very unfortunate for them,” says Immigration lawyer Duncan Millar.
Last year, six million people crossed the border at the Peace Arch or the truck crossing. There were just over 100 expedited removals.
Comments
Want to discuss? Please read our Commenting Policy first.