It seems the Spirit of Ontario I — the now-defunct high speed ferry that ran between Toronto and Rochester in 2004 and 2005 — continues to haunt people living and travelling in New York state.
According to a New York Times article by Nina Bernstein, the border patrol station opened in Rochester to process ferry users has since grown significantly and shifted toward a new role: arresting people travelling on buses and trains in the state who cannot produce proper citizenship documents. Rochester-based agents made 1,040 arrests in 2008 — one of the highest rates in the country, according to the Times.
So why the focus on Rochester, and other cities in upstate New York? Because they’re less than 100 miles from the U.S. border, and therefore within the border patrol’s enforceable area. “The little-publicized transportation checks are the result of the border patrol’s growth since 9/11,” writes Bernstein, “fueled by Congressional antiterrorism spending and an expanding definition of border jurisdiction.”