Border patrol agents at Union Station Wednesday.
(Updated) Federal border patrol agents swept into Union Station Wednesday afternoon — but their agency said they weren’t here to conduct feared immigration raids.
A cluster of four agents in Homeland Security border patrol uniforms were spotted inside the station at about 2:50 p.m. Additional officers were holding doors open to the trains as people boarded.
Reports swept rapidly around town about the agents’ presence. Ever since federal agents this month began making stepped-up raids in cities across the country looking to arrest and deport undocumented immigrants, New Haven’s activist community has been on high alert. Memories remain raw of a federal sweep in 2007 in which agents arrested 32 immigrants. And President Donald Trump has signed an executive order targeting immigrant-friendly “sanctuary cities” like New Haven for financial retribution.
Twice in the last day stories have spread around town of federal agents conducting raids in the Hill and in Fair Haven. Those proved to be false rumors. In one case, the rumor stemmed from the presence of an adult probation officer.
But the agents in Union Station were indeed from the Department of Homeland Security. And they remained at the station for hours, on the main floor and on the lower level.
Activists from Junta for Progressive Action and Unidad Latina en Accion, who have been preparing to respond to raids, rushed to the station. Joined by student interns from Yale Law School’s Worker & Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic, they followed the agents through the station for about 30 to 45 minutes, until the agents left the station and drove away.
Wednesday evening, U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman Stephanie Malin told the Independent in an email message that the agents were at Union Station “working alongside TSA and local law enforcement agencies, as we regularly do, to conduct screening for radioactive material at train stations and ferry stations. The screening results were negative.” She referred questions about details of the screening to TSA, which could not be reached for comment.
City transit chief Doug Hausladen said that members of the border patrol have in the past come to the station with state police and National Guard members for joint operations. Hausladen said officials at the parking authority (which manages Union Station) were not given advance notice of Wednesday’s operation.
A “VIPR” operation was underway, said Michael S. McCarthy, spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration. VIPR stands for “Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response.” He said the operations take place monthly at Union Station. VIPR teams are authorized to screen and detain passengers. See the above TSA video for more on VIPR operations.
“Through a joint planning process, TSA VIPR teams have been working with our transportation stakeholders since 2005,” McCarthy stated in an email. “The teams have conducted thousands of operations in coordination with our stakeholders and continue to ensure communication and operational capabilities designed to protect the traveling public are enhanced. There is no credible information to suggest a specific threat at this time. TSA VIPR teams deploy at the request of our stakeholders thousands of times each year both randomly, to create a random deterrent to terrorism and organized criminal activity, and for special events and holidays that involve a large number of people using transportation systems.
Ana Maria Rivera, director of advocacy for Junta, said she was heartened by how quickly the network of local activists mobilized in resopnse to the agents’ appearance.
“We have the system down,” she said, in case the next report is not a false alarm.
Markeshia Ricks and Lucy Gellman contributed reporting.