U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine’s 1st Congressional District is calling on border officials to investigate recent complaints by a Wabanaki elder about how he and his fiancee were treated at the Houlton and Calais border crossings.

On Friday, Pingree sent a letter to Rodney Scott, commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, calling for the agency to strengthen its training of border officers. The Democrat asked the agency to make an apology to the elder — David Slagger, a member of the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians and Woodstock First Nation in New Brunswick — and improve its handling of the rights of Indigenous people at U.S. border crossings.

Slagger, who lives in Monson, has accused officials at the crossings of, among other things, handcuffing his fiancee while she wa

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