WASHINGTON—Corey El was watching The Office as the train he takes a few times a year from New York City to Niagara Falls, N.Y., pulled into Syracuse. When he glanced up from his laptop last Thursday, he was startled. A U.S. Border Patrol agent was looking down at him from the aisle. This has never happened to him before, and the reason seemed obvious. By land, Syracuse is more than 153 kilometres (95 miles) from the Canadian border.“I had to look at the stop,” said El, 27. “Like, we’re in Syracuse. What are they doing here?”It turned out the agent had a question for him and an assortment of other passengers. The question added anger to his bewilderment.“Are you a citizen of the United States?” El, a New Yorker born and raised, suspected he might not have to answer. But he also did not think it was worth taking the risk involved in being a Black man who refuses to co-operate with law enforcement. Instead, he muttered a scoffing “yeah.” The agent turned to move on. El told him he was “pretty sure what he was doing was illegal.”To the dismay of civil liberties advocates, the U.S. government says it is perfectly legal. And to the confusion of people on buses and trains in states near Canada — most of whom, like El, are not carrying passports — it appears to be happening with increased regularity in the Donald Trump era.A U.S. law gives the Border Patrol the right to board and search any vehicle within a “reasonable distance” of the country’s boundaries. A 1953 regulation defines “reasonable” as within 100 miles (160 kilometres).Because “boundaries” include coasts, the “100-mile zone” includes entire states — all or almost all of New York, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Vermont, the American Civil Liberties Union notes. The zone also includes Houston a ...
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