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Wednesday, 01 September 2010 16:34

Written by Reg Henry

       Much has been made about the potential for racial profiling inherent in Arizona’s new immigration law, which is now subject to court action. As you probably know, I have been one of those expressing such fears.
       But on Monday, The New York Times printed a story that challenges some of my assumptions, or at least complicates the Arizona picture. Judging by the Times story, I reckon the feds have been operating in heavy-handed fashion too.
       Under the headline “Border Sweeps in North Reach Miles Into U.S.,” the story reports that armed Border Patrol agents routinely board trains and buses in upstate New York, miles from the border and question passengers about their citizenship. Let us pick up the story:
       “ ‘Are you a U.S. citizen?’ agents asked one recent morning, moving through a Rochester-bound train full of dozing passengers at a station outside Buffalo. ‘What country were you born in?’ ”
       It said that “hundreds of passengers [are] taken to detention each year from domestic trains and buses along the nation’s northern border. The little-publicized transportation checks are the result of the Border Patrol’s growth since 9/11, fueled by Congressional antiterrorism spending and an expanding definition of border jurisdiction. In the Rochester area, where the border is miles away in the middle of Lake Ontario, the patrol arrested 2,788 passengers from October 2005 through last September.
       “The checks are ‘a vital component to our overall border security efforts’ to prevent terrorism and illegal entry, said Rafael Lemaitre, a spokesman for United States Customs and Border Protection. He said that the patrol had jurisdiction to enforce immigration laws within 100 miles of the border, and that one mission was preventing smugglers and human traffickers from exploiting inland transit hubs.”
        I feel the need to say, although I shouldn’t need to, that Naturalized citizens like myself are in no way second-class citizens. The only thing we can’t do is be president of the United States, which is a job beyond the imagining of most everybody not named Bush or perhaps Clinton. (I am holding out for secretary of state myself.)
         But if I take the Lake Shore Limited from New York to Chicago, do I have to take my passport to prove that I am a citizen when I answer truthfully that I was born in Singapore? (I grew up in Australia but I was born in Singapore).
         Perhaps you don’t care about my inconvenience or suddenly conferred second-class citizenship, but how would you feel about federal agents setting up road blocks, or going to malls or restaurants to ask you questions about your citizenship? Because if they are combing trains and buses, why not other public places?
         How many questions will you answer before you think Big Brother is nudging you just a little much?
         Speaking for myself, I resent being asked such questions in the absence of any proof. I resent having to carry my passport around when I am in the United States. At least in Arizona, reasonable suspicion had to exist before the cops asked for your papers.