News of law enforcement actions against Chinatown bus companies has been circulating recently in the Chinatown community and within immigration law spheres, with reports of raids in Manhattan's Chinatown, New Jersey, and Georgia. Though U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) denies that it raided a Chinatown bus depot on February 3rd, reports from bus companies say that one Chinatown bus was boarded in Buffalo and three undocumented immigrants were apprehended.

According to these reports, immigration officers boarded a long-distance bus, owned by the Shun Fa bus company and operating between Buffalo and New York City, at a station in Buffalo. Carrying laptop computers, they checked the immigration status of all passengers on the bus and escorted three away. Afterwards, the bus departed as it normally would for New York City. However, the Shun Fa bus company has not yet confirmed these reports.

One Fujianese immigrant told a lawyer that a relative had been arrested on a Chinatown bus on the 3rd, and another recent immigrant reported that a relative had been arrested in his New Jersey home by immigration officers carrying computers and photographs of him.

ICE spokesperson Luis Martinez said that the stories of raids on the 3rd are rumors, and that the ICE makes targeted enforcement actions only after receiving a report.

Coincidentally, the ICE has over the past few months tightened its watch on bus companies. Through its "Night Moves" operation in Houston, it has apprehended 209 undocumented immigrants from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and other countries, and will be bringing 22 suspects to court on charges of human smuggling, punishable by 10 years in prison and $250,000 in fines.