GRAND MARAIS – If you ask the agents from the U.S. Border Patrol station in town, they say it was an investigation that led to an apprehension. Nothing remarkable about it, they’ll say.
On June 8, agents from the Border Patrol apprehended two people near Grand Marais. After stopping a truck in between Grand Marais and Cutface Creek just west of town on Highway 61, one person was taken into custody for an overstayed visa, and a passenger in the vehicle was also apprehended for being out of visa status. The two individuals apprehended are brothers from Chile, multiple sources confirmed with this newspaper. They’re both being deported to South America, according to sources who spoke with the newspaper for this article.
Local supporters of the apprehension, and more generally of the Border Patrol and the Trump administration’s approach to border security, noted last week on social media that the agents were “doing their job.”
Some community members, however, feel differently about the situation. Claims of racial profiling, or “targeting,” were made by Cook County residents following the incident last week. An organization known as Arrowhead Indivisible held a rally June 9 along Highway 61 in Grand Marais. Some of the signs held at the rally opposed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), though it was never reported that ICE agents were involved with the June 8 incident. More broadly, much of the concern about the incident focused on how and why the two brothers from Chile were stopped in a truck that belonged to a local resident, and ultimately apprehended.
According to the Cook County Sheriff’s Department, prior to the apprehension of the two individuals, the Border Patrol agents ran the truck’s license plate, and the individual tied to the vehicle was flagged for an overstayed visa. Some community members suggest this doesn’t add up, as the vehicle belongs to a longtime local resident, and not to one of the people apprehended.
Seeking further information, this reporter went to the Border Patrol station in Grand Marais June 11 and knocked on the door. An agent answered and responded to some basic questions, including a general inquiry about what happened June 8 near Cutface Creek. An investigation led to the apprehension of two individuals, was the simple response from the agent. The agent then provided a phone number to someone named Maranda Everson. The agent said Everson was a Duluth-based public information officer for the Border Patrol. Multiple phone calls to Everson seeking more information about the June 8 apprehension were not returned. This reporter also reached out to other regional press officials who work for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) seeking information.
This was sent to the regional CBP office June 15 from this reporter, “Specifically, I am looking for information regarding the vehicle driven by one of the individuals before and during the apprehension. Our local sheriff’s department shared in a press release last week that Border Patrol agents stopped the vehicle after running a license plate.
A Border Patrol agent told me last week when I stopped at the local Border Patrol office in Grand Marais that an investigation led to the apprehension of the two individuals from Chile.
Can you please explain the sequence of events that led to the apprehension of the two individuals June 8 near Grand Marais?”
Steven Bansbach is a public affairs specialist for CBP, primarily operating out of the Chicago field office for the agency. Bansbach called this reporter June 15 and said the agency would send a statement regarding the June 8 incident. The statement was not sent by the deadline for this article.
Knocking on the door of the local Border Patrol station is not a welcoming endeavor. Signs make it clear the Border Patrol hub in Grand Marais is not open to the public, and the facility is not likely to land on any “must see” maps printed by the local tourism bureau anytime soon. That said, the local Border Patrol agents are often gracious when a reporter knocks on the door of the facility. This reporter has done so on numerous occasions during the past 12 years, and once did a ride-along with the former commanding officer for the local border patrol office, Matt Curran.
During his time leading the local office, Curran wanted to improve outreach and communication between the local Border Patrol station and the community. This objective, which Curran initiated in 2016, was on a positive trajectory for about a year. That changed when a story by Dennis Anderson from the Star Tribune in 2017 appeared to derail any such effort to bolster public outreach from the local Border Patrol office. Anderson and this reporter were invited to paddle canoes on Saganaga Lake at the end of the Gunflint Trail while Border Patrol agents checked in with people on the water for things like their passport. The comment section on the Star Tribune’s article derailed into a pool of criticism and negativity when Anderson’s story was published, and communication all but dried up from the local Border Patrol to the press. Curran transferred to a new job with the federal agency not long after, which also impacted communication between local media and the Border Patrol.
