BLAINE, Wash., Oct. 1 (UPI) -- U.S. immigration authorities say they're making more arrests by focusing on bus and train stations many miles from the nation's borders.
U.S. Border Patrol agents have the authority to search any kind of transportation within 100 miles of international borders and have launched a program targeting bus, train and ferry routes that don't include border crossings, USA Today reported Wednesday.
"The first line of defense is on the immediate border," Joe Giuliano, deputy chief of the Border Patrol sector in Blaine, Wash., told the newspaper. "We have to have a second line of defense."
Guiliano said his agents in February began checking passengers aboard the ferry between Washington's San Juan Islands and the terminal in Anacortes, Wash., catching 59 illegal immigrants and eight U.S. citizens, mostly on drug violations.
The tactic uses racial profiling based on skin color and accents, immigrant and civil liberties advocates told USA Today.
