Report: Border Patrol wrongly arrested hundreds in N.Y.

Gary Craig, Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle | Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle

ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- U.S. Border Patrol agents in western New York have been rewarded with cash bonuses and Home Depot gift cards in an incentive program that has grown at the same time as has an overly aggressive enforcement culture, a new study states.

While the study does not definitively link the incentive program and the enforcement practices, the report from the New York University School of Law Immigrant Rights Clinic says that the Border Patrol culture -- especially at the Rochester bus and train stations -- is one that "maximizes arrest rates."

Between 2006 and 2010, close to 300 immigrants with legal status were arrested by Rochester-based Border Patrol agents then released, according to the study.

The rewards program in the Buffalo office of the Border Patrol, which oversees Rochester enforcement, was "ramped up from a few thousand dollars in 2003 to nearly $200,000 in 2011," states the study, which NYU did in conjunction with the immigrant rights group, Families for Freedom.

The study utilized information released under the federal Freedom of Information Act. Researchers also used Border Patrol records that detail when the Border Patrol arrests someone who turns out to have legal status. Those include cases of individuals granted visas or political asylum or refugee status.

"Part of the problem here is that the Border Patrol has adopted a way of looking at the law that is they think that everybody has to be carrying (immigration papers) all the time unless they are a citizen," said NYU law professor Nancy Morawetz, one of the researchers.

In turn, she said, foreigners with legal status have found themselves handcuffed, detained and arrested when stopped at bus and train stations.

In a statement Border Patrol officials said the agency "does not tolerate racial profiling."

"No such practice of paid incentives and awards for specific human targets or enforcement actions has ever occurred within the Border Patrol, nor will it ever occur," said a statement from U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman Joanne Ferreira.

John "Lory" Ghertner, a Sodus-based advocate for migrant workers, said the incentive program likely encourages agents to make arrests, even questionable ones.

"You have performance quotas to actually be rewarding (agents) to pull over U.S. citizens, to handcuff U.S. citizens in front of their families, to drag them into Border Patrol stations and to accuse them of stuff that they didn't do," he said.

The study highlights multiple instances of the arrests of legal immigrants who did not have their papers on hand, including college students who were detained until their universities were able to fax records confirming the legal status.

Jeff Cox, director of the International Student Services at the Rochester Institute of Technology, said the questioning and occasional detention of foreign college students at the Rochester bus and train stations had been a recurring issue until about 18 months ago.

Now, he said, at orientation for foreign students "we emphasize ... to make sure they have their (immigration) documents" when traveling.

Also, he said, Border Patrol officials in meetings with student leaders said an increase in the number of agents prompted more enforcement in the region.

The Border Patrol related that "many (of the new agents) had come from the southern border," Cox said. "There were some training issues. The officers down there, 90 percent of the people they encounter coming across are illegal."

During a lawsuit over the availability of records, Border Patrol officials said they did not track arrest records at the Rochester stations, claims that run counter to what the records eventually showed, the study states.