If I drive across a U.S. border, I expect to stop at a
Border Patrol checkpoint. But imagine driving to the grocery store, or
mom's house, well inside America, and being stopped by the Border
Patrol. Many Americans don't have to imagine it — it's how they live.
Even as the federal government fails to control the southern
border, it sends the Border Patrol farther into the interior, where
Americans complain that agents harass people who are already U.S.
citizens.
It's legal. The Supreme Court ruled that the Border Patrol can set
up "inland" checkpoints anywhere up to 100 miles from an external border
of the United States. That's what government now considers a
"reasonable distance" from the border.
But that means the zone within which you could be stopped and
searched includes much of Florida and California, and all of Maine and
New Hampshire. Two-thirds of America's population lives that close to
the border.
American Civil Liberties Union lawyer James Lyall argues, "Interior
checkpoints fundamentally fly in the face of what it means to live in a
free society, where you don't have to answer to federal agents when
you're going about your daily business."
The Supreme Court ruled that Border Patrol agents at these
checkpoints can "conduct brief stops for the limited purpose of
verifying residence status" but cannot "conduct searches of individuals
or the interior of their vehicles." But the experience of members of my
staff and videos on YouTube show that Border Patrol agents do exactly
that. They often demand answers to lots of questions and search cars,
too.
The reason these videos are posted on YouTube is because increasing
numbers of Americans consider the searches unconstitutional. They
refuse to answer the extra questions. Some refuse to roll down their
windows. Then agents sometimes break the window. Sometimes they tase the
driver.
Pastor Steven Anderson was stopped at a Border Patrol checkpoint 60 miles from the Mexican border.
Officers say their police dog alerted them to something in his car,
but Anderson says the dog never reacted to anything. Anderson wouldn't
let them search his car, so officers broke both windows and tased him.
People in Arivaca, Ariz., 25 miles from the border, told us that
living there is like living in occupied territory. Apache helicopters
fly overhead. Dozens of Border Patrol trucks cruise their streets.
Children in Arivaca must go through checkpoints every day just to go to
school.
"Agents tell people," says Lyall, "that all residents are suspect simply by virtue of living in southern Arizona."
The Border Patrol wouldn't respond to my questions about these
issues, so Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., spoke up for them: "I'm not aware of
any significant abuses. I'm on the Homeland Security Committee. If
anything, the complaint we get is there's not enough strict
enforcement."
He points out that "when people come into this country illegally, they don't stay on the border; they keep going."
That's true. But that doesn't justify harassing people who just want to drive home from work.
Rick Rynearson, an Air Force pilot who served in Iraq and
Afghanistan, told me he's furious about being repeatedly stopped. Once
he was detained for over half an hour when, after answering 17 questions
from agents, he refused to answer more.
I asked Rynearson: "Why not? The Border Patrol agents would say,
come on, Rick, this is hardly a threat to your liberty. Just tell us
where you're going."
But Rynearson told me he sees himself as "a person who's having to
stop in the middle of a road, who's done nothing wrong, and finds
himself surrounded by armed government agents with dogs."
As an Air Force pilot, Rynearson understands that protecting our
safety and freedom sometimes requires a police presence or military
action. But he offers this reminder: "Real freedom lies in the thin
space that separates an American citizen from an armed member of their
government."
Unfortunately, as domestic policing grows, that space gets thinner.
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