Border Patrol

Thus far, the US Border Patrol has come on board twice. I know of other times when Border Patrol has chosen to inspect trains in search of undocumented migrants, but to my knowledge, these instances occur mainly in the US-Mexico border, and not so much in the North. The first time I encountered them somewhere between East Glacier National Park and St.Paul/Minneapolis (to be more specific, I think it was somewhere around Fargo). The two officers entered the car, and went around repeating, "We are with the US Border Patrol." They mainly looked at people, and it seemed to me that if the passenger did not look the part, the agents did not bother--in other words, here we had racial profiling at its best.

The second time, Border Patrol boarded the train in Buffalo, and one by one asked the passengers, "Are you a citizen?" If the person said 'yes', the agents moved on; if the person said 'no' the agents asked for documentation. The method seemed inefficient. Why would any person living in the US illegally say, "No, I am not a citizen"? An undocumented migrant could answer 'yes' without fear of lying because the question is vague. One lady who was asked whether she was a citizen responded, "You mean of this country? I better be a citizen!" Sure, this response caused laughter, but it points to the need for officers to ask whether people are citizens of the United States, and not just citizens in general.