🚨ICE Just Boarded a Train in Montana — And Everyone Should Be Paying Attention🚨

Something alarming just happened in Montana, and it hasn’t gotten the national spotlight it deserves.

On Sunday, April 13th, armed U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents boarded an Amtrak train in Havre, Montana. Dressed in full tactical gear and accompanied by dogs, they walked through the passenger cars and began asking people a simple—but chilling—question:

“Are you a U.S. citizen?”

One of the passengers, a North Dakota judge, described the encounter as “intimidating.” And it’s not hard to see why. Imagine you’re just trying to get home, or see your family, or travel for work—suddenly you're being interrogated by armed federal agents on a train inside the United States.

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📍 Wait, Can They Do That?

Technically, yes—thanks to a federal rule that allows CBP to operate within 100 miles of any U.S. border. That “border zone” includes not just rural outposts like Havre, Montana, but also cities like Detroit, Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles.

In these zones, CBP agents have the legal authority to board “vessels, railcars, aircraft, or vehicles” to search for undocumented individuals without a warrant.

But just because it’s legal doesn’t mean it’s right.

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🧠 Why This Matters — and Why It's a Problem

When federal agents start conducting random citizenship checks on domestic trains without probable cause, we’re not just talking about immigration anymore. We’re talking about:

• Erosion of civil liberties

• Normalization of authoritarian tactics

• Racial profiling and intimidation in public spaces

• Fear and mistrust in everyday environments like public transit

This is the kind of enforcement behavior we often associate with surveillance states—not with a free and open democracy.

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🧭 We’ve Seen This Coming

For years, civil liberties organizations have been warning us about the quiet expansion of border enforcement powers. But many people shrugged it off, assuming it would only affect others—non-citizens, undocumented folks, “somewhere else.”

But now? It’s happening on domestic trains. In the interior. In towns like Havre. In communities where people thought they were safe from this kind of thing.

This isn’t just about immigration anymore. This is about all of us.

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✊ What You Can Do

1. Know Your Rights
   If you're ever questioned by ICE or CBP, remember: you don’t have to answer questions about your citizenship. You don’t have to show ID unless you're the driver of a vehicle. You can ask if you’re free to go.

2. Spread the Word
   Don’t let this story disappear. Share it. Talk about it. Post it. Tag your representatives. Use your voice to keep this from becoming the norm.

3. Support Legal Aid and Immigrant Advocacy Orgs
   Groups like the ACLU, RAICES, and your local immigrant support coalitions are doing the frontline work to push back.

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🛑 Final Thought

This may seem like a small town event, a minor blip on the radar—but it’s not. This is a canary in the coal mine, and we need to treat it like one.

When people are being stopped and interrogated by the government inside their own country—on trains, buses, and streets—we’re already down a dangerous path. The only way to turn back is to raise hell, raise awareness, and refuse to normalize it.

Don’t let authoritarian creep slide in quietly.

Stay awake. Stay loud. Stay free.

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💥 #Resist #BorderZone #ICEWatch #Amtrak #CivilLiberties #KnowYourRights #AbolishICE