Border Patrol arrests former student from Kenya in Spokane

SPOKANE, Wash. — In spite of a city ordinance that bars federal immigration agents from accessing nonpublic city property without a criminal warrant, U.S. Border Patrol arrested a former student from Kenya at a Spokane bus station.

The Spokesman-Review reports agents boarded a Greyhound bus Sunday to check the immigration status of each passenger.

Border Patrol's Spokane sector spokesman Bill Kingsford says the Kenyan man initially tried to pass off fake identification.

Kingsford says the man, who was not identified by border officials, entered the country in 1998 on a valid student visa, although when questioned Sunday, he said he hadn't been in school for a while.

Kingsford said the man was transported to the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, where he awaits an immigration hearing.

Kingsford says agents will continue to access Greyhound buses until directed to do otherwise by the chief legal officer for Border Patrol.