A U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint on Interstate 91 is beginning to wear on residents and prompt questions by Vermont’s congressional delegation. At a congressional hearing last week, U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy told Customs and Border Patrol Commissioner Robert Bonner that the I-91 checkpoint is stopping honest people who are simply driving through their home region.
The checkpoint is nearly 100 miles from the Canadian border. Bonner says the checkpoint is part of a strategy that doesn’t rely solely on stops at the border itself.
Senator Jim Jeffords wrote to Bonner in January questioning him about a proposal to make the checkpoint permanent.
Since the current checkpoint was established at the end of 2003, 626 foreign nationals determined to be in the country illegally have been apprehended there.