Border Patrol Officers Arrest People on Highways in New England to Check Their Citizenship



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On Interstate 95 near the remote Lincoln town this week, border police said they made nine drug seizures and two arrests for immigration violations during an 11-hour check period.

The federal agency – one of the key to the center of a growing humanitarian crisis involving 2,300 children separated from their parents on the Mexican border – said in a statement that Wednesday's checkpoint was a way to prevent smuggling organizations from traveling to the interior of the United States. "

According to Customs and Border Protection, the United States Supreme Court upheld the agency's ability to claim the motoring citizen's status, even if they are not suspected. Officers use training and questions to make decisions about the citizenship or residence of a traveler, he said.

"Travelers have the right to remain silent," he said in a statement. "Cooperating travelers pass quickly, unless the officer suspects that they are contravening federal law. Travelers who refuse to cooperate may be directed to a secondary examination area to allow agents to ask additional questions to determine the traveler's citizenship or residence.

Armed with the search authority to carry out immigration checks within a reasonable distance of 100 air miles from US land and coastal borders, the Border Patrol also set up a checkpoint last week on Interstate 93 near Woodstock, New Hampshire.

The operation from 15 to 17 June resulted in the arrest of five undocumented immigrants from Brazil, China, Ecuador, El Salvador and Mexico, as well as by seizure of drugs, according to customs and border protection.

"The immigration police in this country is emboldened"

The American Civil Liberties of New Hamphire said that there had been a handful of border patrol checkpoints on I-93 in Woodstock – about 90 miles from the Canadian border – since the summer last, WMUR, affiliated with CNN. There have been no such checkpoints for more than five years.

"The immigration police in this country is being encouraged," said Gilles Bissonette, legal director of the New Hampshire ACLU, after 17 people were arrested during a weekend operation. end of Memorial Day. "We see it not only nationally, but here in New Hampshire."

The federal agency's actions in the region were also discussed earlier this month when an employee of a Maine bus company told a group of passengers that they had to be US citizens to ride a bus. A border patrol officer inquired about the citizenship of the passengers.
An employee of the bus line tells passengers that they must be Americans to ride
The ACLU in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont filed a lawsuit against the US Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement. targeted arrests of immigrant rights activists.

"Residents of New England have the right to know what federal agents are doing in their communities and hold them accountable for their actions," said ACLU Vermont's attorney, Lia Ernst, in a statement.

The bus incident, which occurred on Remembrance Day in Bangor, was captured in a cell phone video recorded by a Massachusetts man, Alec Larson. He was questioned about his citizenship at the bus terminal while he and his girlfriend were boarding a Concord Coach Lines bus for the return trip to Boston.

The bus employee has been deceived, said a Concord Coach Lines officer later.

Border Patrol may ask you if you are a citizen of the United States, but depending on the situation, you do not have to answer the question, according to the ACLU.

Two-thirds of the United States lives within this 100-mile border area, which includes many large cities and several entire states, including Florida, Michigan, Maine, and Hawaii, according to the report. American Civil Liberties Union.

Border police checks in the 100 mile zone are attracting more and more attention in recent times as the Trump administration strengthens its crackdown on illegal immigration.

Larson's video was widely broadcast online after a Facebook post from the ACLU of New Hampshire in which Bissonnette lashed out at the agents' actions.

Tina Burnside of CNN contributed to this report.

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