CovOps
 Location : Ether-Sphere
Job/hobbies : Irrationality Exterminator
Humor : Über Serious
 |  Subject: Deine papiere, bitte: Some drivers give BP the silent treatment  Sun Dec 14, 2014 12:42 am | |
| At Border Patrol checkpoints, critics have nothing to declare
Don Tran and Chad Ivey’s drive from San Diego was uneventful until they halted at a Border Patrol checkpoint near Yuma. Then this November 2013 trip turned into a nightmare.
Although both men are U.S. citizens, they were repeatedly questioned, then locked in a cage while agents rummaged through Tran’s 1999 Mercedes sedan. An hour later, the travelers were released. Nothing illegal had been uncovered — except, Tran maintains, the Border Patrol’s actions.
“I was outraged,” said Tran, a former IT engineer with San Diego’s MedImpact. “They illegally searched my car.”
The Border Patrol operates a national network of internal checkpoints, halting motorists up to 100 miles inside the country’s boundaries. While the checkpoints’ stated goal is to apprehend unauthorized immigrants, critics argue that agents also stop and search law-abiding American citizens without justification.
On YouTube, a series of videos show protesters refusing to answer agents’ questions. Usually, these encounters end with the travelers sent on their way. In at least two cases, though, agents smashed car windows and forcibly removed the drivers.
“We are supposed to live in a country that secures our rights — and one of those rights is to be able to travel freely,” said Mike Benoit, executive chairman of the San Diego Libertarian Party.
“These things are such an abomination.”
In 1976, the U.S. Supreme Court disagreed. In a case involving the checkpoint on Interstate 5 in San Clemente, a majority upheld these stops’ constitutionality.
Almost 40 years later, this system endures — although it faces a new wave of challenges.
“These are mini police-state zones,” said Mitra Ebadolahi, an attorney in the ACLU’s San Diego office. “Often, local citizens are subjected to extended interrogation and detainment.”
Detained
Despite several requests, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency did not answer questions about its checkpoints, not even revealing how many exist.
“We’re not really sure how many are in operation,” Ebadolahi said, “and that’s part of the problem.”
In 2013, the agency reported operating 35 permanent checkpoints but did not number its temporary checkpoints. The Arizona Republic’s recent investigation put the total at 170.
Local checkpoints include one on Interstate 5 at San Clemente, I-8 near Pine Valley, I-15 at the Riverside County line, and state Route 94 near Jamul.
The Border Patrol made 420,789 apprehensions in fiscal 2013, but did not specify how many were made at checkpoints. “This American Life,” a radio show broadcast here on KPBS-FM, recently cited “an internal report” saying 7,600 arrests were made at checkpoints in fiscal 2012, with 1,800 referred to U.S. attorneys for prosecution. In the same period, checkpoints accounted for one-third of all narcotics seized by Customs and Border Protection.
On paper, the agency argues that checkpoints are essential.
They “restrict the ability of criminal organizations to exploit roadways and routes of egress away from the border,” an agency pamphlet said. “Checkpoints provide an additional layer in our Defense in Depth strategy. Our enforcement presence along these strategic routes reduces the ability of criminals and potential terrorists to easily travel away from the border.”
More: http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/dec/13/border-patrol/ |
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