SYRACUSE, NY (WRVO) - Immigration activists in Syracuse have been filming federal border patrol agents questioning the citizenship status of travelers at the Regional Transportation Center. But U.S. Customs and Border Protection said those agents are following the law.
Last week, Sheila Sicilia filmed federal agents asking people at the transportation center if they are U.S. citizens.
"We need to basically protect our country from what’s taking it over," Sicilia said. "Some people don’t want to call it fascism, but if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck."
Members of the Syracuse Immigrant and Refugee Defense Network have been checking the center once or twice a week for a few months now. Sicilia said on Thursday, one of those members witnessed a person being taken off an Amtrak train by border patrol.
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"They're really, trying to make people think they have to do things that they don't," Sicilia said. "They don't even have to answer the question of are you a citizen. When he asked me I said I don't have to answer that. He said okay, have a nice day and walked on. Everybody has the right to do that but they don't know it. They see this big authority figure and it's intimidation and it's not what our country is about."
Yusuf Abdul-Qadir with the New York Civil Liberties Union said these actions by border patrol are part of a pattern happening across the country.
“Border patrol doesn’t have unlimited power, to search people without reasonable suspicion," Abdul-Qadir said. "We're concerned that people may be singled out or targeted because of the color of their skin or the perception of what their status may be.”
But a Customs and Border Protection spokesperson said immigration officers have the right to board and search for aliens in any vehicle, without a warrant, 100 miles from the border. The agency claims these actions prevent trafficking, smuggling and are vital to national security.
Their full statement is below.