Papers Please - Northern Edition

[Patranus]

Nina Bernstein has an article on the front page today about American Border Patrol agents who board trains running completely within the United States looking for undocumented immigrants. Here is her first-person experience on such a train in upstate New York. If you’ve had an encounter with the Border Patrol, let us know in the comment box below.

Traveling from New York City to Buffalo on Amtrak’s Lake Shore Limited last month, I wondered what I would say if Border Patrol agents showed up on the train at Syracuse or Rochester and asked, “Are you a U.S. citizen?”

My plan was to politely decline to answer, and see what happened next.

After all, the train was not crossing an international frontier. At the train stations and bus depots in western New York where such citizenship checks began on a small scale in 2006 and are now a little-publicized but regular feature of domestic travel, the Canadian border is far away, in the middle of Lake Ontario.

The Border Patrol said it had jurisdiction to enforce immigration laws within 100 miles of the border. But it also said that its agents’ questions were a part of “consensual, nonintrusive conversation.” In theory, that means that people are free to refuse to answer and walk away. One goal of my reporting trip was to see for myself, and for readers of The New York Times, how such conversations played out in practice.

Thousands of passengers have been taken to detention because they answered that they were not United States citizens, and then could not show immigration documents that satisfied the agents. Other passengers simply declared American citizenship and stayed in their seats. The inland transportation checks have increased as the number of agents deployed in the region has grown sixfold since 9/11.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/30/when-the-border-patrol-comes-aboard/

I await the calls of racism.

 

[UberNeuman]

I await the calls of racism.

I'm awaiting the time when "conservatives" quit being professional victims...

 

[Schadenfroh]

n/m

 

[Fear No Evil]

Obama has hopefully reported this human rights abuse to the UN for a proper investigation.

 

[Orignal Earl]

I think I seen this on an episode of Border Patrol.

Border Patrol is a 34-episode syndicated half-hour adventure/drama television series which aired in the United States during calendar year 1959

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_Patrol_(US_TV_series)

 

[umbrella39]

I'm awaiting the time when "conservatives" quit being professional victims...

Don't hold your breath.

 

[Fear No Evil]

I'm awaiting the time when "conservatives" quit being professional victims...

Really? REALLY? What next, you are going to claim Republicans are in bed with the Unions?

 

[UberNeuman]

Really? REALLY? What next, you are going to claim Republicans are in bed with the Unions?

Sir. Don't do that. Don't even attempt it.

My point was made quite clear...

 

[CrackRabbit]

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/30/when-the-border-patrol-comes-aboard/

I await the calls of racism.

So, were they checking everyone or just those that "look illegal"?

 

[PokerGuy]

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/30/when-the-border-patrol-comes-aboard/

I await the calls of racism.

Silly man, you know this kind of thing is only a problem if it's done by conservatives.

 

[drebo]

Buffalo is like 20 minutes from the Canadian border...

Checks of people coming out of the station are perfectly warranted.

 

[Fear No Evil]

I guess its OK to be a racist if the Federal Government is doing it.. Its OK! We have a half-black President! Now show us your papers!

 

[Orignal Earl]

I guess its OK to be a racist if the Federal Government is doing it.. Its OK! We have a half-black President! Now show us your papers!

Looks like according to the polls, America wasn't ready yet, for a half-black President.

 

[nobodyknows]

Looks like according to the polls, America wasn't ready yet, for a half-black President.

I actually think you have a very good point. Hillary should have been the Dem nominee because between the wars and the economy we really didn't have time for all the race baiting crap and the inferences that he is Muslim. The Dems couldn't even beat GWB in his second term and then when the country is so pissed off about the economy they elect a half black (and some seem to think half Muslim) president.

 

[nobodyknows]

I'm awaiting the time when "conservatives" quit being professional victims...

I thought progresssives supported the playing of the "victim card" for all minorites??

 

[child of wonder]

As the first comment says:

"The terrorists have won."

 

[spidey07]

Obama has hopefully reported this human rights abuse to the UN for a proper investigation.

This post has been reported to flag@un.org.

 

[Patranus]

Buffalo is like 20 minutes from the Canadian border...

Checks of people coming out of the station are perfectly warranted.

So asking someone for their green card when they do not have a valid form of ID issued by a government, after a crime has been committed isn't?

Hmmm.

Random guy on train...
"Papers please"

Guy involved in crime without ID asked for green card they are legally required to carry at all times.
RACIST!!!!! HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION!!!!!

Got it.

(The only reason the professional left isn't crying is because it is the northern border.)

 

[dainthomas]

If I was on a train from Everett (83 mi from Canada) to Portland and some border patrol guy asked me if I was a citizen, I'd tell them to f-off. Of course, I would never be asked because I'm white.

 

[PokerGuy]

So asking someone for their green card when they do not have a valid form of ID issued by a government, after a crime has been committed isn't?

Hmmm.

Random guy on train...
"Papers please"

Guy involved in crime without ID asked for green card they are legally required to carry at all times.
RACIST!!!!! HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION!!!!!

Got it.

(The only reason the professional left isn't crying is because it is the northern border.)

Logic and left rarely go together, you should know that by now.....

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Obama has hopefully reported this human rights abuse to the UN for a proper investigation.

I'd wager that the word "Obama" or some derivative appears in no less than 2500 of your 3613 post

 

[OutHouse]

I guess its OK to be a racist if the Federal Government is doing it.. Its OK! We have a half-black President! Now show us your papers!

racist? against who? i didn't know Canadians are a race.

 

[OutHouse]

If I was on a train from Everett (83 mi from Canada) to Portland and some border patrol guy asked me if I was a citizen, I'd tell them to f-off. Of course, I would never be asked because I'm white.

arent most people in canada white?

 

[OutHouse]

The inland transportation checks have increased as the number of agents deployed in the region has grown sixfold since 9/11.

thumbs up!

 

[OutHouse]

Mr. Cole, 65, whose gray ponytail could be seen under his baseball cap. “It didn’t make a whole bunch of sense. It bothers me, because in America we’ve never been expected to carry around and produce proof of citizenship on demand.”

maybe if the fucking feds stopped all the nonsense going on on the southern border states years ago, we wouldn't be in this spot we are in now.