(Host) A dairy farm family in northern Vermont is fighting the federal government's plan to take some of their land.

The farm is next to a border crossing with Canada. And the U-S Department of Homeland Security says it may need 10 and-a-half acres of prime hayfield to make the port of entry more secure.

Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy recently told the federal agency that the project is too big.

VPR's John Dillon reports:

(Dillon) It's mid-morning at the Morse's Line border crossing in far northern Franklin County. For the last 10 minutes, Brian Rainville has been standing in the middle of Vermont Route 235.

And he's not in any danger of getting run over.

(Rainville) "Well, you ought to come and see us in March. The first thing through is the town truck in the morning to plow. The next thing might be the grain truck. And then it's the Post Office. And in between you have the two officers arriving for the day. It gets awfully quiet up here in the winter."  

(Dillon) On this morning, only one empty log truck rolls by on its way south from Canada.

Brian Rainville is a farmer's son and a high school history teacher. In the classroom, he often focuses on the Constitution. And for the past two weeks Rainville has been using his own First Amendment rights to speak out against the government plan that could end up costing his family 10 acres of valuable farmland.

Rainville steps off the empty road and points to the edge of a field, still bright green with alfalfa. 

(Rainville) "Now we're on the proposed site. It runs west right down several hundred feet and then north over a thousand feet until it hits - you can see there's a fence post down there that we've wrapped with some red tape to show the proposed boundary line of the project. The challenge with that is that we can't get into some fields anymore. You can't exactly take your tractor, wagon and chopper through a radiation detector to get into a field."

(Dillon)  Rainville says his family met with federal officials last spring about their plans to replace the 70-year-old Morse's Line port of entry. The existing building is a small, plain brick structure with a single lane to inspect vehicles.

It was built as a public works project during the Depression.

The preliminary design for the new station called for a roughly 3-acre site. But Rainville says it wasn't until late September when he learned that the Army Corps of Engineers and the Department of Homeland Security had drawn up detailed plans for a new, $14 million port of entry on 10 acres of his family's prime hayland.

The family only found out about the plan when his mother read a legal notice in the newspaper.

(Rainville) "We've been here since 1946. It's not like we're difficult people to find. And that was really frustrating -- to be totally shut out of that process. I can't understand how that happened."

(Dillon) The government's project description says the development will have minimal impact on the farm. Rainville and his family don't see it that way.

(Rainville) "This is hay land right now. And if the cycle holds, next year this was going to be corn land. We've got a limited amount of space, and for somebody to suggest that we have land that we just don't know what to do with, was a bit of a challenging moment."

(Dillon) The Rainville farmstead is immaculate. The two farm houses are on the National Registry of Historic places. The family raises almost all the feed themselves for the herd of 90 Holstein milkers. The farm is 240 acres, but they say a 10-acre loss in their valuable crop base would cut right to the bottom line.

Brian's father, Clement, is in the milk room cleaning up the equipment after the morning milking. Clement Rainville is 69, and he chooses his words carefully

(Clement Rainville) "Ten acres is a big bite. It's a big bite. For the number of people coming out of Canada. Ten acres and that size Customs, it doesn't seem to go together. We haven't figured out where this brand new traffic is going to come from."

(Dillon) The Department of Homeland Security did not agree to an interview on tape. In a written statement, a DHS official said the government has not yet determined how much land will be needed. The official promised that the agency will reach out to the community and the Rainvilles as the project moves forward. 

Brian Rainville agrees that the Morse's Line port does need to be modernized.

(Rainville) "This is going to make it a lot easier for officers to do their job. But I'd really like to make sure that my parents and my brother have a job when that ribbon is cut."

(Dill

on) The Rainvilles say they're encouraged that Senator Leahy got involved in the case.

The family will meet with federal officials late this week to discuss possible alterations to the project.

For VPR News, I'm John Dillon in Morse's Line.