Montpelier — The three members of the Vermont congressional delegation said on Tuesday that they were concerned by a U.S. Border Patrol plan to set up immigration checkpoints in the interior of the state, far from the Canadian border.

In a statement, U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Democrat, independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and Democratic U.S. Rep. Peter Welch said they appreciated the work the Border Patrol does to stop dangerous criminal behavior on the border, but they don’t think checkpoints would make Vermont or the United States safer. Rather, they said, the checkpoints would cause needless delays for travelers and hinder commerce between Vermont and Canada.

“Moreover, we are concerned these interior checkpoints may result in warrantless searches that violate the constitutionally protected Fourth Amendment right to privacy for everyone in our country and will instill fear in our immigrant communities — regardless of an individual’s immigration status,” the statement said. “We believe that inside our country the phrase ‘show me your papers’ does not belong in the United States of America.”

Officials with Customs and Border Protection offered no immediate comment.

The regional Border Patrol headquarters in Swanton occasionally sets up such checkpoints in New Hampshire and New York.

Federal law allows the Border Patrol to set up checkpoints within 100 miles of the international border. Leahy, Sanders and Welch have introduced legislation in the two chambers that would reduce that zone to 25 miles.

Also in May, American Civil Liberties Union affiliates in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont filed suit against the federal government to get a clearer picture of immigration enforcement actions since the Trump administration took office.

Following the 9/11 attacks in 2001, the U.S. Border Patrol began running an occasional traffic checkpoint along Interstate 91 southbound at the rest area in Hartford. And last summer, two Border Patrol agents boarded a Greyhound bus that had just arrived at the White River Junction station, looking for passengers who might have entered the country illegally.

A New Hampshire judge ruled in May that checkpoints in the Granite State led to unconstitutional searches in drug cases that stemmed from the traffic stops. He suppressed evidence against more than a dozen people who were charged with drug possession after being searched by agents of Customs and Border Protection, which includes the Border Patrol, in 2017.

In an email after the news release was issued, Leahy spokesman David Carle said the Border Patrol hadn’t announced its plans for the Vermont checkpoints, but delegation staff members had been briefed.

“Vermonters know that Border Patrol checkpoints offend everything it means to live a free society, where people going about their daily business shouldn’t have to answer to armed federal agents,” said James Lyall of the Vermont ACLU.