Immigration Checkpoints Beyond The U.S. Border

A couple of weeks ago, 25 people were arrested near Woodstock, N.H., for alleged immigration violations. This was not during an immigration raid. It was an immigration checkpoint which took place on I-93, 70 miles from the Canadian border.

Those arrests led us to a fact many in our newsroom were surprised by: U.S. Customs and Border Protection has legal authority to set up checkpoints in order to check immigration status of people passing through, anywhere within 100 miles of the physical boundaries of the United States.

That is a wide swatch of land, which some estimate to include residences of a third of all Americans. What's more, this was the first time such a checkpoint had been set up in New Hampshire in five years.

We'll take a closer look at the 100-mile border zone and what that means for civil liberties.

Bradley Curtis, division chief for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Swanton Sector in Vermont, which covers New Hampshire, Vermont and upstate New York. He has been with CBP for more than 23 years. The organization tweets at @CustomsBorder and @CBPNewEngland.

Ron Abramson, attorney with Immigration Solutions in Manchester, N.H. The organization tweets @immigsolutions.