According to a story in the Los Angeles Times:
[Armed] Border Patrol agents [in fatigues] began conducting random checks and undercover surveillance at the Washington state ferry terminal in Anacortes this year. The agents intercept disembarking passengers, inquire about citizenship, request IDs, and run vehicle and criminal background checks. A plainclothes officer patrols the small terminal.
They set up checkpoints that have netted “50 people — 49 of them Latinos, mostly from Mexico — on suspicion of immigration violations” and “four U.S. citizens on charges of personal use of marijuana” in order “to secure a porous border and send a message, not to chalk up mass arrests.”
Locals are unimpressed. Some Latinos haven’t left the islands in months. These are domestic ferry runs, not runs across the border–as if we should regard Vancouver Island a threat. They see racial profiling and the imposition of a police state, terms the reporter diminishes by enclosing in quotes and accusing the locals of “tossing around.”
“We ought to be able to travel within our country without being subject to being searched,” said Jack Sprout, a retired orchardist.