Syracuse, N.Y. -- Miguel Robles was on his way to New York City from Cleveland in August last year when the bus he was riding stopped to pick up passengers in Rochester.

Border Patrol agents boarded the bus and asked the five Latino men on it for papers, Robles said through an interpreter. When they asked him for his paperwork, he showed them papers from his Green Card application, which is pending in immigration court in Cleveland, he said.

"They put me in handcuffs," Robles said. He said agents told him his application to be a legal, permanent resident didn't matter.

Robles, 36, is married to a U.S. citizen and has 11-year-old twin boys who are also U.S. citizens. He works in construction in Cleveland, he said. He entered the U.S. illegally from the Dominican Republic 12 years ago.

Robles was taken to the federal immigration detention center in Batavia. While there, he said, agents pressured him to sign a voluntary removal order. If Robles had signed, he would give up his right to argue his immigration case and be fast-tracked for deportation.

"I resisted signing it," Robles said.

Robles was in detention for about a month, he said, before he went in front of an immigration judge. After a hearing that lasted minutes, Robles was able to get out on bond and go home to his family. His green card application and deportation case are pending, he said.

Robles' story is repeated in cities across the state and nation: Bus and train trips that end in secret prisons and closed courtrooms. It offers a window into the increased searches by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol on buses and trains. While the searches were not uncommon under President Barack Obama, the frequency has increased under the Trump administration, according to statement from Dave Long, a Customs and Border Patrol spokesman who oversees the Buffalo region.

"Transportation hubs are used by alien smuggling and drug trafficking organizations to move people, narcotics, and contraband to interior destinations throughout the country," Long said in a statement. "To combat these growing threats, the U.S. Border Patrol has increased the frequency of deportation checks around the country as an additional enforcement mechanism to reinforce CBP's world-class approach to border security."

Last year, the government made a change that gave more power to local agents. Now, the chief agent in each region approves the searches. Before, they had to be approved through a process at Border Patrol's central headquarters in Washington, D. C., Long said in the statement. Border Patrol is not required to keep data on the searches its agents conduct.

Lawyers and advocates said they have seen an increased presence of Customs and Border Patrol agents at the regional transportation centers in Syracuse, Buffalo and Rochester. Average people, here illegally for decades often, are getting caught in the document searches and finding themselves in deportation proceedings.

Immigration advocates say this is the government taking advantage of the fact that undocumented immigrants often rely on public transportation because they are barred from getting drivers' licenses in most states. There are 12 states that allow the licenses, including Connecticut and Vermont. New York does not; legislation has been introduced here but seems unlikely to pass this year.

Advocates for tighter immigration controls say the increased checks will deter people from crossing the borders illegally.

"This type of activity is essential to protecting our national security and tamping down on the flow of illegal aliens into the U.S. There is nothing unusual about this; the BP is carrying out is duty, which was curtained during the Obama administration, to enforce federal immigration law," said Hans von Spakovsky, senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. "The more publicity there is about it also, the more effective it may be in acting as a deterrent to illegal aliens who want to cross into the U.S. from Canada."

Immigration advocates recently took video of agents questioning people boarding a bus at the Syracuse regional transportation center. They went down the line, asking travelers for their paperwork to prove that they are citizens. They are not required to oblige. The searches, without warrants, are allowed under federal law because they occur within 100 miles of the border. The law used to allow searches within 25 miles of the border, but the zone was expanded in the 1950s.

Lawyers and immigration advocates say the searches, without warrants, smack of racial profiling. People who have been in the country for decades find themselves locked up for weeks before they can see an immigration judge to post bail. And many end up facing deportation because they entered the country illegally.

"If you've seen the video or you've been there, they are going person to person and asking principally folks of color," said Herve Comeau, an immigration attorney with the Volunteer Lawyers Project of Onondaga County.

In recent months, Comeau received about a half-dozen phone calls from people while they were being questioned at the Syracuse regional transportation center. In all of those cases, the people were either U.S. citizens or international students who were in the country legally, Comeau said.

But in some of the cases, the people didn't have the proper documents with them and Comeau had to talk them through how to get the documents in front of the agents who were questioning them. In all of those cases, once a lawyer was involved, the people who were questioned were let go, Comeau said.

"What's scary is how many of these are we missing? How many of these calls don't I get," he said.

In early May, Pat Reynolds was at the Syracuse Transportation Center when he watched as Border Patrol agents remove a man from the train.

"He wasn't talking," said Reynolds. "He looked very scared. There was really nobody there to notice."

A border patrol spokesman later said the man was from Yemen, but declined to give any more information about the situation, including the detained man's name. He also declined to give any data on searches at the different transportation hubs in Upstate New York.

Reynolds, a retired human resources manager who lives in Fayetteville, had read about the questioning agents were doing at the transportation hub the week before and was disturbed. He said he decided to check it out for himself. He was surprised to see someone detained.

Jose Perez, an immigration lawyer who practices in Syracuse, Buffalo and Rochester, said the increase in calls from immigrants in detention because of bus and train searches has been substantial. In recent months, he has had 11 consultations from potential clients who were detained after being questioned. Robles, the man from Cleveland, is his client.

A 65-year-old couple who had been in the country for nearly 30 years found themselves in handcuffs and then immigration detention for six weeks after immigration authorities searched their bus in Rochester.

"This routine terror at the hands of Border Patrol instills fear in community members who are simply traveling for work or visiting loved ones," said Carly Fox, Senior Worker Rights Advocate at the Worker Justice Center of NY in Rochester.

Fox, who provided translation for this story, said Greyhound should stop allowing Border Patrol to board its buses and New York should allow undocumented workers to get drivers licenses.

Teresa Obiedo-Orozco and Jose Fide Valdes-Lopez were traveling to Chicago from New York city when they were picked up by border patrol agents off their Greyhound bus in Rochester. The couple, both 65, spent more than a month in immigration detention. They are now facing deportation.

Teresa Obiedo-Orozco and Jose Fide Valdes-Lopez were going to see her brother in Chicago. They'd made the trip twice before by bus and once by plane and never encountered immigration authorities. Now they are facing deportation.

Both entered the U.S. illegally from Mexico nearly three decades ago and eventually made their home in Newburgh, N.Y., outside of New York City. He has worked in landscaping, at car washes and as a mechanic. She cleans hotels and homes. They've paid taxes out of their paychecks over the years. And they've never been in trouble with immigration - until now.

Through Fox, the interpreter, the couple said they had never seen Border Patrol agents. The agents boarded the bus and asked everyone for documents proving their citizenship. The couple offered their passports and then were removed from the bus.

"He said, 'We'll get you off the bus to ask you some questions and let you go on your way,' but that's not what happened," Obeido-Orozco said.

They said they were taken to the Customs and Border Patrol office in Irondequoit and questioned for several hours before being taken to the Buffalo Federal Immigration Detention Center in Batavia.

They and Robles said that in detention, they weren't sure what would happen or what rights they had.

Obeido-Orozco and Valdes-Lopez said they were treated properly.

"They didn't hit us. They brought us to the doctor," Obeido-Orozco said.

But they were only able to see each other on Sundays for a half hour. They were in detention in Batavia for six weeks. When they finally saw an immigration judge at the end of that time, they were quickly released on $1,500 bond each.

She's been here for 24 years and he for 28. Now they are facing deportation. They have no idea what will happen now.

"Only God knows," she said. "We never imagined this would happen to us."

Marnie Eisenstadt writes about people, life and culture in Central New York. Have an idea or question? Contact her anytime: email | twitter | Facebook | 315-470-2246