» Border Patrol Stops Routine Passenger Inspections

Unexpectedly, the US Border Patrol’s routine inspection of passengers traveling on trains running across Upstate New York (but not crossing any international border) came to an abrupt end in mid-September. These inspections, which have been focused primarily on the Lake Shore Limited at both the Buffalo-Depew and Rochester stations, have been ongoing for the past several years.

The inspections, which targeted undocumented travelers and illegal immigrants among others, have been the subject of repeated media reports (including an undercover story which appeared last year in the New York Times) and lead to extensive investigations into the constitutionality of the inspections by the American Civil Liberties Union, were expanded to also include intercity buses, which have also now been curtailed.

The uniformed Border Patrol agents would generally ask passengers to state their nationality and if they were satisfied with the response they would quickly move on. But for those passengers that raised the suspicions of the agent, formal identification was required to be produced. If their ID’s were not supplied or found not to be in order, the passengers would be taken off the train for further questioning and possible detention. Passengers traveling in coach were far more likely to be questioned than those in sleepers or business class. Trains were often delayed as the agents did their inspections, though such delays had been greatly reduced in the past couple years, in part due to Amtrak’s strong insistence that efficient train operations trumped the authority of the agents.

Increasingly however, knowledgeable passengers who objected to such domestic questioning recognized that they weren’t under any legal requirement to answer the agent’s questions and many would refuse to do so.

The Department of Homeland Security has made no clear statements regarding the reasons for the stoppage of the inspections, though they have indicated that Border Patrol agents retain the legal authority to make such inspections and that they may resume these activities at anytime in the future.

From the passenger’s perspective, the ceasing of these routine inspections will make for more enjoyable trips and should help improve on time performance, especially for the Lake Shore.