The Maine chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has presented two federal agencies with a lawsuit over the issue of public records request relating to checks on citizenship at major transportation hubs that have been left unfulfilled.
In January, federal officials were asked by the civil liberties organization to release records about the checks on citizenship at two Maine transportation hubs. The requests followed an incident at the Bangor Transportation Center where Customs and Border Protection agents approached passengers getting on a Concord Coach bus and asked questions about their citizenship. No response has been received in months by the agency from Customs and Border Protection or its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, and the ACLU argues that they have failed to respond as required by the Freedom of Information Act.
The lawsuit seeks to force the release of the records by the federal government. Staff attorney, Emma Bond, said the public has the right to know the ways in which federal immigration agents operate in their state but that Customs and Border Protection has a long history of ignoring public records requests and disregarding the law.
Jonathan Maynard, the US Border Patrol public affairs liaison for the Houlton sector, said he could not comment on any pending litigation. But, the practice of making immigration inspections at locales such as transportation hubs is not new, with Border Patrol legally allowed to conduct citizenship checks within 100 miles of the land and coastal borders of the US.