Caught in Transit: The Rochester Border Patrol Station
Photos, media and text by Andrew Burton

For seven weeks starting in February 2008, I followed U.S. Border Patrol agents working on the Canadian border near Rochester, N.Y., as they sought illegal immigrants.

The branch has become known on the northern border for their aggressive and tenacious approach in searching for people without legal permission to be in the United States. Agents monitor interstate buses and trains passing through Rochester transit terminals 24 hours a day, and have become alarmingly effective. In 2007 alone, they apprehended more than 1,200 people who could not provide documentation proving they were in the country legally, and agents say that number is expected to rise in 2008. Compared to 41 other stations along the U.S.-Canadian border, the Rochester station apprehends more people annually than any other outpost.

Agents say the work they do is divisive and morally challenging. While some individuals they arrest have criminal histories involving theft, murder and rape, others are upstanding individuals who simply have faulty paperwork. I watched them arrest a pastor, musician, and mother with twin 4-year-old children, all because they didn’t carry the proper documentation with them.

Repeatedly in interviews with the agents, it became clear they don’t enjoy making “the tough apprehensions” any more than I liked documenting them. Agents explained how they used to have the jurisdiction to handle each case on an individual level, but since September 11, 2001, immigration law has toughened. As federal employees, they must now apprehend every individual who cannot prove he or she is in the country legally.

My goal for this project was to juxtapose the moral quagmire at hand. Agents feel misrepresented in the media as people who destroy families and take America’s work force away; still they understand the job they have been hired to do. On the other hand, society demands that illegal immigrants with serious criminal records be arrested and deported, but become angered when the agents search for unlawful people with too broad a brush.

Witnessing the agents in their daily work, I realized that despite their stern personas and militaristic uniforms, they truly are kind, courteous and unbiased. They strive to treat people fairly and approach each individual with the same attitude. They recognize that they are dealing with people’s lives, and they believe they are doing society more good than harm.