My trip on the Amtrak from NY to Washington.
 

This message is for all those who wrote to me asking how Seattle went for me. I took an Amtrak from NYC to Washington! Many of you told me to be careful and some to even not take the Amtrak as Border Patrol checks your papers. That scared me but I had no choice,I had to risk it. I had to go to Seattle, and Amtrak was the only way I could go.

Well, you guys were right. I was still shocked when the Amtrak was stopped at the Syracuse stop and a bunch of Border Patrol dudes in green jackets hopped on and I could hear them say " Are you a US citizen?" some people said ya, and Border Patrol just walked passed them. I heard a couple of young guys say no " I'm a legal resident", so the BP asked them for their papers, which they didn't have.. THEY pulled them off the train. And I almost had a heart attack, cause all I had on me was a work id with a picture and a ss card..

I was kind of napping when they were on the train, under a blanket.. and shaking and unable to move or speak. Thinking if I should just hop out of the train somehow. It kind of felt like a movie.. or the holacaust kind of feeling like, they were picking out random ppl to get rid of. It was pretty traumatizing. When they passed by me, I pretended I was sleeping, they all just looked at me and walked by. I am a super young looking white girl and don't look or sound foreign in the slightest.


Finally they got off the train. I couldn't move for a long time, I went to the bathroom and just barfed. I felt so terrible they took those 2 young men off the train, one was Asian, other was Hispanic.. and someone up there must be pulling for me, cause they just let me be. I truly felt the injustice and discrimination in this world in that moment. That moment changed something inside of me, moved me beyond belief. It tears me up thinking about it. I felt guilty and grateful all together.

BP did not stop the train the rest of the way. After I got to Chicago and switched trains, I met some awesome cool people in the Amtrak lounge, my trip time altogether was 3 days. I got to truly see the entire country.. beautiful mountains and sunsets. The remaineder of my trip pretty much made up for the horror on the Syracuse stop.

I have family who live here in Washington, and Ive lived here for a month now. I got my Washington ID here last week. I am so grateful to EVERYONE on this wonderful website who gave me advice and helped me out. I am tearing up just talking about it. I am heading back to NY soon with my new ID.



Check out this Moby video. That's how I feel sometimes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nas51x3ZQCg

Re: My trip on the Amtrak from NY to Washington.
 

Woah, so it's confirmed here for anyone to has doubts.

Re: My trip on the Amtrak from NY to Washington.
 

thnx for the info

Re: My trip on the Amtrak from NY to Washington.
 

Thank you for sharing your experience.
God Bless Dreamers!

Re: My trip on the Amtrak from NY to Washington.
 

Thanks,excellent need to know information.

Re: My trip on the Amtrak from NY to Washington.
 

Words cannot express how happy I am for you!...

And you're probably extremely happy with your new ID as well!...

It sucks that you had to go through that, but just feel happy that it went well for you.

I'm glad to hear that everything worked out!

Re: My trip on the Amtrak from NY to Washington.
 

Sounds scary, but now your got a State ID so take the plane to NY next time :)

Re: My trip on the Amtrak from NY to Washington.
 

I wouldn't recommend taking any flights even with a state ID.

Re: My trip on the Amtrak from NY to Washington.
 

Its safe using a state ID on a domestic flights. Using a state ID on Amtrak is more dangerous because they always have raids on Amtrak and if they will think that she's lying they will still arrest her.

There was a story about a US citizen who took the Amtrak or the Greyhound, I don't really remember, and Border Control raid the train and even after he showed them his driver's license they arrested him and put him in detention. They thought that he's lying when he said that he's a US citizen. He was a black man in his 30s and they claimed that he speaks English with a foreign accent although it was an American accent.

On domestic flights there is only the TSA and they are not ICE or Border Patrol, sometimes they check for visas in foreign passports and report to ICE and it can be dangerous, but as long as someone is using a valid US government issued ID then he has nothing to worry about.

Re: My trip on the Amtrak from NY to Washington.
 

Yeah, I will go to Seattle next week and intend to flying back with a hopeful valid DL.
Does anyone know the highway that is border checkpoint free to Seattle, Washington?