On Sunday [August 1st] the Border Patrol arrested 10 Poles who were part of a group that was on its way back from a two-day bus trip to the Adirondacks. All those detained were undocumented immigrants.

The youngest among the arrested is a 15-year-old girl, the oldest is 62. The bus was pulled over around 2 p.m. on route 9N near Port Henry. Jan Bielen, owner of Polonez Travel Agency, which organized the trip, said that Border Patrol agents put up a check point on the road and stopped every single vehicle.

"It was impossible to pass by and avoid them," says Bielen, who said check points were also set up on other roads in that area. "It is the first such incident in our agency's history," he added.

According to the information gathered by Consul Piotr Janicki, from the Legal Department of the Polish Consulate General in New York, eight of the 10 arrested people were being held at the Washington County jail in upstate New York, but the 15-year-old girl and her mother were taken to Berks County Youth Center, in Leesport, PA.

"To my knowledge, a $10,000 bail has been set up for the eight people taken to the New York prison," said Consul Janicki, who added that it was the first time, to his recollection, that so many Polish citizens have been detained during a road check.

Bozena S., 38, is one of the persons arrested. Her close friend, Teresa, says she last spoke to Bozena on Sunday night. "She only told me that the group had been separated in jail. When I tried to call her later, she no longer answered her phone."

Bozena, who has lived in Brooklyn for the past two years, comes from the Lubelski region in Poland. "She had come here three times before and always went back to Poland on time [before her visa expired]. This time she decided to stay longer hoping she could legalize her status," Teresa says. "She has three adolescent children in Poland and wanted to send them to schools. She kept wiring money to them," Teresa continues.

Jerzy Sokol, an immigration lawyer, says that he always warns his clients who do not have a legal status against traveling in areas close to the [Canadian] border where one can expect to find checkpoints pretty much anywhere.

According to Sokol, "one of the sites the Border Patrol routinely controls is a spot on route 87 on the way from Montreal to New York, around 90 miles south from the border." At the checkpoint, Border Patrol officers ask whether the passengers in the vehicle are U.S. citizens. If they are not, the officers request to see documents proving their legal status. "If Border Patrol officers are not able to confirm an individual's identity, the person is sent for further investigation, to the so-called secondary inspection," the lawyer explains.

Sokol points out, however, that there is no rule where exactly one can expect to find a checkpoint. "Many people know they are set up at route 87, so they take other roads; however, the Border Patrol is also aware that people do that."