Talk about wedding crashers. Newlyweds Danielle and Thierno Diallo of Essex claim that last Saturday night their wedding in St. Albans was “ruined” by Border Patrol agents, who showed up at their reception and began questioning the wedding party and guests about their immigration status. The couple claims that the federal response occurred for no other reason than that many of their guests had dark skin and African accents.

However, Border Patrol tells a very different story. According to Mark Henry, operations officer for U.S. Border Patrol’s Swanton sector, his agents were simply responding to a call about “multiple suspicious individuals on Main Street in St. Albans” congregating around a “closed or abandoned store or building.”

According to the newlyweds’ account, which they told at a Wednesday afternoon press conference, the evening started out as a joyous occasion. Danielle, 31, is white, grew up in Winooski and currently works as a hair salon manager in Burlington. She says the wedding ceremony was held in front of the fountain in Taylor Park in St. Albans and went off without a hitch. It was followed immediately thereafter by a traditional African drumming ceremony.

Afterwards, the guests proceeded to a reception at the St. Albans clubhouse of the Vermont Voltage, a semi-pro soccer team that Thierno plays for and coaches. Thierno, 28, is black and originally from Guinea, west Africa. He spent most of his formative years in France before moving to Vermont in 2001 and still speaks with an African accent. He’s been with the Vermont Voltage soccer team since 2002, is active in the St. Albans community and has permanent resident status in the United States.

There were no initial signs of trouble brewing, though Danielle recalls that after the ceremony, a few young passersby in cars shouted racial epithets at the newlyweds and their guests and told them to “go home.” 

But the Diallos say that things didn’t really get ugly until about 9:30 p.m. That’s when, he claims, more than a half-dozen Border Patrol units showed up at their reception site and began questioning the groom and his guests outside about their immigration status.

“We’re not quite sure why they showed up,” Danielle reports. “They just showed up and proceeded to ask for papers… and questioned the legality of people attending our wedding.”

 “I’ve attended a lot of weddings in St. Albans,” Thierno adds “I’ve never seen immigration coming in and asking people ‘Why are you here and where are you coming from?'”

This article appears in Jun 9-15, 2010.

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Staff Writer Ken Picard is a senior staff writer at Seven Days. A Long Island, N.Y., native who moved to Vermont from Missoula, Mont., he was hired in 2002 as Seven Days’ first staff writer, to help create a news department. Ken has since won numerous...

13 replies on “Newlyweds Accuse Border Patrol of Ruining Their Wedding in St. Albans”

  1. @ Ken Picard: Why (if indeed) there was a disturbance, why weren’t the St Alban’s police called, rather than the Border Patrol?

  2. I have no doubt that the Diallos account of this event is accurate; ICE would never have sent only three officers to check on a wedding party. They sent two to check on me eight months ago when I was waiting for my son to pick me up at a gas station in Highgate. There I was when two border patrol vehicles came over and first one, and then a second officer asked me about my “status”. When I showed proof of my “legality” they said that they had been called by passers-by who described me as a probably “illegal person”. If been questioned was quite stressful and annoying, knowing that ignorant, coward, and insecure people can just make a call because they feel threatened upon seeing different color and/or hearing a different accent on their territories, and couple patrols will be dispatched to publicly harass you on the street is truly demoralizing.

  3. WOW. This is incredibly outrageous. How sad for these people that one of the most important and supposedly beautiful days of their lives was darkened by the insecurities of their community members. Not to mention the brazen “cowboyish” behavior of these border patrol agents. Does anyone in this country with authority have tact anymore? Seriously. How pathetic. Shame on you border patrol. Is that really how your mothers raised you? And shame on you faceless person for calling your neighbors into question.

  4. Good question, Jay, I don’t have that answer yet. Will update as I get more info. Definitely more to come…

  6. Sam Hemingway’s story in the Burlington Free Press story today ends with a quote from the St. Albans PD:

    St. Albans Police Lt. Ron Hoague said Border Patrol did not contact his department about anything going on in or near Taylor Park on Saturday night.“They kind of do their own thing,” he said of the Border Patrol. “Sometimes they contact us, sometimes they don’t.”

    Link here.

  7. It’s an all too common occurrence I’m afraid. I think they would be more efficient and less harassing if they were just confined to deskjobs. That way they would do no harm and actually be a positive force for the community due to their absence outdoors asking questions about people who look “too foreign” to their judgment.

  9. The fact that immigration was called and responded instead of the police department says it all.

  10. “The fact that immigration was called and responded instead of the police department says it all.”Says it all? Really? Exactly what does it say? I don’t think you know what you are talking about. If a party gets out of hand, you call the police. If you think there’s an illegal immigrant in town, you call the border patrol.

  11. The fact that the police weren’t called says a lot about the fact that there was no crime going on in the first place. The fact that it was a wedding reception and that immigrant agents were called says all about the fact that somebody called in on the suspicion that just because they looked “foreign” and were congregating together says that the way you look is almost a crime. Whoever called them in was an ignorant and petty person who doesn’t know jacksquat about immigration. People who congregate in a space like that who look foreign aren’t likely to be undocumented immigrants because undocumented immigrants stay in the shadows as much as possible to avoid being caught and deported. The ignorance some people show that they are the ones that ought to be taught a lesson on US history.

  12. It sounds like those agents were just doing their job. They followed up on a tip, found that it was baseless and left. There’s no evidence that they engaged in “cowboyish” behavior. Yes it sucks that government agents showed up at a wedding reception but it’s the faceless ignoramus who called on the Border Patrol to respond who should be shouldering the blame here.

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