Author Archives: Lornet Turnbull

Greyhound bus raids a stark reminder that two-thirds of Americans live in a ‘Constitution-Free Zone’

Recent Greyhound bus raids have revealed an obscure law that gives Border Patrol authority 100 miles inside borders, across the entire perimeter of the country.

In Hartford, Vermont, last year, U.S. Border Patrol agents boarded a Greyhound bus as it arrived from Boston, asking passengers about their citizenship and checking the IDs of people of color or those with accents. In January, they stopped a man in Indio, California, as he was boarding a Los Angeles-bound bus. In questioning him about his immigration status, they told him his “shoes looked suspicious,” like those of someone who had recently crossed the border. Continue reading