Immigration Patrolling Northern Border

In talking with people from Latin American about the US' immigration laws, I like to note that people residing in the US - even in Arizona - are subject to less stringent immigration checks than occur in the countries that send droves of immigrants to the US. Never in the US, I like to point out, will police knock on doors in hotels to ask for proof I'm in the country legally (as has happened to me in Honduras).

Or so I thought. The New York Times reports today on the federal government's expanded use of border and documents checks along the areas near the Canadian border. Government agents are more regularly boarding public transit, including trains, and asking passengers to prevent proof of their legal status.

The catch, which the agents are unlikely to point out, is that passengers have no legal obligation to provide such proof. As the Times story points out:

"Legal scholars say the government’s border authority, which extends to fixed checkpoints intercepting cross-border traffic, cannot be broadly applied to roving patrols in a swath of territory. But such authority is not needed to ask questions if people can refuse to answer."

The government defends the practice as a vital part of its national security and immigration strategy, but several critics say the practices are another example of the government overreaching its authority.

Image Source: New York Times ("Border Patrol agents in the north routinely board Greyhound buses and Amtrak trains to check the immigration status of riders.")

Online Sources: Fox News, New York Times