Without a better alternative to assist border crossers who enter on foot, the U.S. Border Patrol periodically drops off carloads of recent arrivals at the Jolley’s convenience store in Derby.
Five such new arrivals spent part of Sunday in Jolley’s as shoppers and the store manager tried to help them figure out their next move. The mother and her four children were Congolese refugees with legal residence in the U.S.
The family said they had been living in Texas but decided to leave the U.S. last year, fearing arrest and deportation after statements by the Trump administration.
“In 2017, they said they want to take all the immigrants and send them back to the country,” said the mother, who identified herself only as Joyce. “I was fearing, I was still new in America, and I didn’t know what was going on, so I went to Canada.”
But Canadian authorities told them to return to the U.S., where they had legal residency, Joyce said. (The case of a Congolese man who crossed into Vermont last year highlighted the debate over whether the U.S. is a safe country for refugees).
One of Joyce’s relatives in Canada drove the family to the border, and they crossed the border into Newport on foot, family members said. A border patrol agent drove them to Jolley’s, where a group of people helped them figure out how to get to their ultimate destination: Boise, Idaho, a major refugee resettlement center with a large Congolese community.
Border Patrol drop-offs at Jolley’s happen four or five times a year, said Andre Mathieu, the store manager. The agents choose Jolley’s because it’s nearly the only place in the sparsely populated area that is open 24 hours a day, Mathieu said.
“We’re about the only ones — and the motel next door,” Mathieu said.
Essex County State’s Attorney Vince Illuzzi, who happened by the store on Sunday morning while the family was there, bought the children some chips and talked to the family about their plans. The restless children knocked over a wine stand as Illuzzi spoke on the phone.
“I don’t think there’s a bad guy in the situation; I just think there’s turmoil at the border, at the local level,” he said. “I think the border patrol agents did what they could to accommodate the family.”
Customers and staff eventually helped the family determine that they needed to get to Littleton, New Hampshire, about 65 miles south. There is a bus from Littleton to Boston, and then plenty of buses heading westward from there.
“If I weren’t going to church, I’d probably give them a ride,” said customer Richard Giroux, using Illuzzi’s phone to speak with a reporter.
Instead, the family found a taxi ride to Littleton that would cost them $225.
The local spokesman for the border patrol office in Swanton was not in the office Monday and did not return calls seeking comment.
The Border Patrol regularly helps lost tourists or people with flat tires, often serving as the default local law enforcement agency in mostly rural border towns. Agents provide rides to new arrivals who are on foot because public transportation is so scarce.
“It’s hard to get a taxi out of Newport,” said Mathieu, adding that there’s no taxi service in Derby. “Every time you call, the phone is out of order, or they’re not in business.”
