Customs and Border Protection claims the authority to question people, for any reason at all, within 100 miles of any national or coastal border. This zone encompasses the entirety of Maine and most of New England. Across the country, there have been increasing reports of CBP stopping bus passengers to check their citizenship status, without a warrant, reasonable suspicion or probable cause.
We shouldn’t have to prove our citizenship just to ride the bus. Allowing government agents to demand that we ‘show our papers’ any time they feel like it is a threat to our freedom and democracy.
The ACLU of Maine has filed two lawsuits to find out more about what immigration agents are doing in Maine:
New England ACLU Affiliates v. DHS, et al.
ACLU affiliates in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont filed a lawsuit to require government agencies to turn over records about civil rights violations arising from immigration enforcement in their states. The lawsuit was filed against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It seeks records concerning interior enforcement operations including Border Patrol checkpoints and bus raids, ICE arrests at courthouses, and the targeted arrests of immigrants’ rights activists.
ACLU of Maine v. DHS, et al.
The ACLU of Maine filed a lawsuit against Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) after the agencies failed to turn over records about investigations into the citizenship status of bus passengers in Maine.
