Immigration checks now not confined to borders only.

Sophie Feal, Supervising Immigration Attorney at the Erie County Bar Association Volunteer Lawyers Project, Inc. in Buffalo, NY, wrote that border checks are no longer happening just at the border, immigration checks are being carried out on passengers who are traveling domestically in the US as well.

She is a member of the Detention Watch Network, a national coalition which is working to improve the US immigration and deportation system.

Many people believe that if they are traveling domestically inside the United States, their immigration status cannot be questioned. Unfortunately, this is not completely true. In New York, an alarming number of non-citizens who are out of status and encountered by the US Border Patrol abroad buses and trains from New York City have been arrested, detained and are facing deportation. People who are not carrying proper immigration documentation with them, such as the ‘green card’ or a passport and I-94 card, may have to face humiliating interrogation while official investigate as to whether or not they are in status.

It is clear that when a person is seeking to enter the United States at a border point, the CBP, Border Protection Officers can request a passport and a visa, if required, or even other appropriate identification, and can start a detailed inquiry regarding the reason one wants to come into the country. Therefore, very few rights are valid at the border. The whole process is called the inspection process.

This inspection process is not just limited to the physical border. According to a provision in the immigration law, a distance of up to 100 miles from an international border is treated as its ‘functional equivalent’. This provision allows Border Patrol and other immigration officials to enter and search vessels, buses, trains and vehicles traveling inside the US in order to determine if there is anyone illegally in the country.

In Upstate New York, the Border Patrol has generally extended its power with the ‘functional equivalent of the border’ to just 25 miles from the physical border. Even so, since 400 miles of New York State borders Canada, it still means that all major Upstate cities, inclusive of Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Albany, are within the jurisdiction of the Border Patrol.

While civil rights organizations like the ACLU justifiably view such transportation checks as a broad and unlawful expansion of law enforcement’s authority to protect US borders, there hasn’t been any challenge of the law to date. For individuals who are caught up in the dragnet, however, the consequences are severe.