[B]order Patrol agents asked Amtrak train passengers about their citizenship in White River Junction last weekend.
Agents boarded multiple trains Friday through Monday, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol spokesperson Stephanie Malin confirmed Wednesday.
No arrests were made during the checks, according to Malin.
VTDigger inquired about Border Patrol checks on the train after receiving a tip that Border Patrol had been asking Amtrak passengers on the Vermonter train about their citizenship within the past week. The passenger could not be reached Wednesday.
Border Patrol agents questioned all passengers about their citizenship, according to Malin.
The Vermonter train, which travels daily between Washington, D.C., and St. Albans, does not cross any international borders.
The Amtrak checks in White River Junction come amid an apparent increase in the number of citizenship screenings at transportation hubs many miles from the international boundary in Vermont and across the country.
Earlier this month, Border Patrol asked about Greyhound bus passengers’ citizenship outside Burlington International Airport. Two agents stood by the front door of the bus, asking passengers what country they’re citizens of as they boarded, according to bus passenger Anna Frangiosa.
A similar check took place on a Greyhound bus in White River Junction last summer.
Federal law allows Border Patrol to work within a “reasonable distance” from the border, defined as 100 miles from the boundary or the coast. White River Junction is about 94 miles from the Canadian border.
Roughly two thirds of the United States population lives within the border zone, according to a recent City Lab report. Most of the state of Vermont falls within the area.
James Duff Lyall, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont, had not heard about the most recent citizenship checks on Vermont trains.
Lyall said these recent checks in Vermont indicate a potential “increase in Border Patrol activity on public transportation in the interior of the country,” noting a perceived uptick since President Donald Trump took office.
“We have serious concerns that there is an increase under this administration of enforcement activity far from the border,” he said.
ACLU groups in Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire filed a lawsuit earlier this month in federal court to obtain records of immigration enforcement actions by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Obtaining these records, he said, would help the ACLU better track Border Patrol’s activities in these states — something that has been challenging due to the “lack of transparency.” The lawsuit follows an unfulfilled records request ACLU made in September 2017.
“That is not how the government is supposed to work,” said Lyall. “It should not take years of litigation to answer a simple question: where are you doing this and why?”
Amtrak spokesperson Jason Abrams would not comment on the recent Vermont train searches, but said in an email that “Amtrak cooperates fully with federal agents and with federal laws.”
Federal law does not require private companies like Amtrak to allow Border Patrol agents on board, according to Lyall.
Amtrak policies require passengers to provide government issued photo identification when asked “any time by Amtrak police or any law enforcement officer.” Government issued photo identification is not necessarily proof of citizenship, unless the ID is a passport or an enhanced driver’s license.
U.S. citizens do not have to carry or provide proof of citizenship when asked for it by Border Patrol or other law enforcement, by law.
Border Patrol can question and detain people upon “reasonable suspicion” that they are not a U.S. citizen. A 1975 U.S. Supreme Court case found that race or ethnicity alone does not constitute reasonable suspicion, but that it could be a “relevant factor.”
“Border Patrol relies on lack of clarity and people’s confusion about their authority,” said Lyall. “They exploit the confusion and the gray areas to imply they can do whatever they want.”
Vermont adopted a new fair and impartial policing policy last year, prohibiting local law enforcement from assisting federal agents with detention of suspected undocumented individuals.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and others tried to pass legislation in 2013 that would decrease the border zone to 25 miles along the northern border.
“The wide latitude in current law for setting up checkpoints far from our borders has led to maximum hassles of law-abiding local residents, with minimal value to border enforcement,” said Leahy in 2013, before the legislation was voted down by the Republican-dominated House.
