Border Sweeps in North Reach Miles Into U.S. (immigrant checking)

[BadgerKid]

First I've read of this!

Border Patrol agents in the north routinely board Greyhound buses and Amtrak trains to check the immigration status of riders.

By NINA BERNSTEIN
Published: August 29, 2010

ROCHESTER — The Lake Shore Limited runs between Chicago and New York City without crossing the Canadian border. But when it stops at Amtrak stations in western New York State, armed Border Patrol agents routinely board the train, question passengers about their citizenship and take away noncitizens who cannot produce satisfactory immigration papers.

...

The checks are “a vital component to our overall border security efforts” to prevent terrorism and illegal entry, said Rafael Lemaitre, a spokesman for United States Customs and Border Protection. He said that the patrol had jurisdiction to enforce immigration laws within 100 miles of the border, and that one mission was preventing smugglers and human traffickers from exploiting inland transit hubs.

The patrol says that answering agents’ questions is voluntary, part of a “consensual and nonintrusive conversation” Some passengers agree, though they are not told that they can keep silent. But others, from immigration lawyers and university officials to American-born travelers startled by an agent’s flashlight in their eyes, say the practice is coercive, unconstitutional and tainted by racial profiling.


MOre at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/30/nyregion/30border.html

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. Maybe they think we are too young to remember/know about Gestapo?

That is very chilling.
All across the country, in a myriad of ways, they are conditioning people to violations of Constitutional rights.

I am so glad I am over 60. I pity those of later generations.

[Newsjock]

2. Internal travel papers, under another name

Even for the most ardent supporters of "border security," random citizenship checks 100 miles from the border are an un-American intrusion. And what if they don't like the T-shirt you're wearing? Or don't like your choice of destination?

Homeland Security is out of frickin' control and needs a big spanking.

[izquierdista]

3. Where is the Red Army when you need it?

I believe they satisfactorily took care of the last out of control "Homeland Security" bunch.

[d_r]

5. they've had traffic stops

one hundred miles north of the southern border for years. They always ask you where you are going.

[Newsjock]

7. Yes, and they actually care more about eeeevil drugs

On I-25 north of Las Cruces, the checkpoint had a giant sign proclaiming how many pounds of drugs had been seized there. As a single male driving at night on a random roadtrip with no particular destination, I was heavily questioned and just narrowly escaped the rip-the-car-panels apart search, all because I wasn't on an "acceptable" form of travel to them.

Fuck 'em.

[d_r]

8. we once had the seats taken out of a car

Years and years ago. The damn dog barked in the police car, walking between the police car, and beside our car. But because it barked outside our car it was probable cause. The good thing was (we were teens)everybody was too broke to have any weed. They just knew they were going to find it - it was an old Christine type Fury II. They left us on the side of the road with all the seats out, etc. No dope in the car. It really ticked them off too, I could tell even then as a scared kid.

[Angry Dragon]

9. I was stopped there also

They asked me if I minded them have a drug dog check out my car.
They were a little peeved when they did not find anything

[timo]

4. its a way of life down here

I live in the rio grande valley, in the southernmost tip of Texas, if you want to drive out of here and visit ANY other part of the state, you have to drive thru immigration checkpoints and answer questions, its been that way as long as I can remember it, if they want to pull you into secondary so be it, if they want to put the sniffer dog on you , they will, these checks are 80 miles from the border.

[NutmegYankee]

6. The ACLU has a section on the "Constitution free" zone of the USA

http://www.aclu.org/national-security_technology-and-liberty/are-you-living-constitution-free-zone