Customs and Border Patrol canine officer
(Photo: CBP)
You're traveling by train. Suddenly, it slows and comes to an unscheduled stop. Armed, uniformed men come aboard with dogs. They question passengers, search luggage and remove one of your fellow travelers for further interrogation. Is this some Cold War-era movie? Nope. It's New Year's Eve on an Amtrak train in California.
I wrote not too long ago about my family's experience at a Border Patrol checkpoint along Interstate 8 in Arizona. We were stopped in the desert, briefly questioned, and then allowed to proceed -- a little wiser about the modern security state. My family's experience was far from unique. The following story comes to me from a Southwestern state legislator with whom I frequently correspond (he prefers to remain anonymous):
At about 5:30am Dec 31 in Imperial Cty. CA, but well away from the Mx. border, US Border Patrol agents stopped and boarded our westbound Amtrak train with a dog and proceeded to walk through all the cars. This woke up my sleeping child and angered me. Amtrak staff told me this was 'random', not based on any specific suspicion or request, and sometimes BP makes trains stop for these searches. Nevertheless, Amtrak staff seemed to fully be part of the program and did not protest or protect passengers in any way.
I saw the dog 'hit' on one passenger's backpack, which BP then searched, without asking for consent, and found a pipe. The guy was pulled off the train, made to put his hands on his head and searched, then let go with only having his pipe taken (likely due to being in CA, if in AZ or many other states he likely would've been hauled off in handcuffs).
I asked BP agents 'why the stop?', and had a bright flashlight directed at my head in a threatening manner for a while as I was told their view that 'we can stop any person, vehicle or aircraft any time for any reason anywhere within 100 miles of the border'. I followed them to observe and eventually IDed myself as a State Rep. and made my disapproval of this conduct clear to BP and Amtrak and their behavior improved and they soon left. The USBP sector chief here (El Centro) is Calhoun.
Our train was on time up to this point, but ended up being late to our destination due to this approx. 30 min. invasive stop. This stop and search, without any reason, disrupted passengers, did not make us any safer, and delayed our trip.
This also happens a lot on buses, I've been told.
My correspondent is right -- this does happen on buses. It also happens along the highways, as I well know, and at ferry terminals. Searches at ferry terminals have become such an issue in Washington state that Customs and Border Patrol provided San Juan Islanders with a FAQ as to what they can expect during such checks, and their (limited) rights when encountering CBP agents. Among the information provided by the CBP is a hint as to what sort of treatment travelers who resent questions from uniformed enforcers can expect:
Am I required to answer the agent's questions at the checkpoint?
No person can be required to give evidence that incriminates themselves - that is a constitutional right. Neither can any public official compel or coerce such a statement if the person being questioned refuses to give one voluntarily. However, the law is quite clear that agents can interrogate any person who is an alien or who the agent believes to be an alien as to his right to be or remain in the United States. A refusal to answer could be construed as an articulable fact supporting a level of suspicion to further investigate and possibly to arrest, depending on the totality of the circumstances at hand.
So, if you keep mum and stand by your right to remain silent, that may be taken as grounds to haul you off in handcuffs as a suspicious character.
The U.S. government claims special powers to conduct such searches anywhere within ... well ... about a two-hour drive of the border. That's right. Up to 100 miles inland, you can expect the sort of treatment my correspondent received on his train journey.
The American Civil Liberties Union refers to this 100-mile corridor round the perimeter of the United States as the "Constitution-free zone." As a map of the zone demonstrates, it includes many of the largest cities in the United States -- and about two-thirds of the population.
My correspondent was a little more courageous than many of us might be when he challenged federal agents during the encounter and voiced his displeasure. He's also a public official who reports an improvement in the behavior of Border Patrol agents once he revealed his identity.
I don't know that the rest of us could expect such respectful treatment. In fact, there's a good chance that most of us would just earn extra scrutiny by failing to bow and scrape, just as that FAQ provided to San Juan Islanders suggests. The ACLU provides the following video of San Diego resident Vince Peppard describing what happened to him when he declined to open his trunk at a checkpoint within the Constitution-free zone.
That's America in 2008. Without muss, fuss or a public vote, many of the constitutional protections we thought we had were quietly stripped away.
Feeling a bit of relief because you don't live near the border? Don't feel too safe. If the government can effortlessly trim your rights once, it can do it again.
ACLU: Fact sheet on the Constitution-free-zone
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Comments
Take a plane. Perhaps you will not have to I.D. yourself or have your personal effects examined.!
Thanks for the writeup.
While I've been documenting my own experiences at internal suspicionless CBP checkpoints for some time now. See:
youtube.com/CheckpointUSA
this is the first documented report of CBP agents randomly stopping Amtrak trains away from the border and using drug sniffing dogs to search passengers absent consent or reasonable suspicion that I've come across.
It's well past time we put an end to these gross violations of our right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure. Documenting these abuses is the first step.
I support any and all law enforcement stop and search. If you don't have anything to hide, then what is the problem? This is public safety and in the long run, benefits all law abiding citizens. We all have to give a little to gain a bit more in being safe in this crazy times. Better safe than sorry.
Nothing but pure fearmongering and intimidation training in violation of all our endowed rights and liberties.
I can only hope everyone felt and was much safer when the pipe and pipe owner was removed........absolutely criminal !
I am continually amazed by the outcry of the liberal public who first and foremost forget that border security officers and agents of the US government are simply doing what the law allows (laws that were enacted by a democratic society) to interdict illegal aliens, narcotics trafficking, and other border induced criminal activities before such things get further inland where the real and pervasive damage is done to American Society.
It is these same liberals who immediately point the figure at border officials as incompetent when people such as those responsible for 9-11 get through. These are the same people who complain that the wait time is too long to return to the United States because our border security agents are trying to keep out the criminal elements.
Why not just open the borders and become no better than any other third world country, rife with crime and corruption because nobody cares. Are our personal freedoms so dear to us that we would sacrifice our own national security and bring about our demise as a country because a limited few do not think it fair that they should be questioned about what they did when they left our country? You have a right to come and go as you please, subject to right of our nation to ensure that you are bringing nothing harmful back with you.
If you aren't doing anything wrong, what is the concern? We are not talking about a police state, or really anything close to it. Would this same official have stepped up and spoken so boldly to an official of Mexico?
Numerous criminal organizations use our borders every day to conduct their illicit business, using aliens and United States Citizens alike in the process. Young and old, professional, educated, and even members of the armed forces and law enforcement community have succumbed to the temptation of bringing things through our borders. Can anyone tell at a glance who is engaged in criminal activity? No, it takes face to face interviewing and inspection.
I would like to see how many times this public official has made open comments or complaints about the inefficiencies of border officials in his region because of escalating crime and other activities.
How does the American public expect to be kept safe from outside influences coming through the borders? Should we make everyone promise to behave? What steps should we take when they don't? Some eggs have and will be broken along the way to be sure, but that is human nature. I am confident that our border security professionals as people have America's best interest in mind when they perform a very difficult and dangerous job.
You can't have it both ways, and at some point it should be recognized that the borders (including a reasonable distance around them) should be monitored more aggressively to prevent future acts of terrorism or criminal activity from entering our country.
The law is the law. Get over it knucklehead. The Border Patrol does its job according to the statutory laws they a bound by oath to enforce. If you don't particularly like those laws, get your congressmen/women to change the laws or move to Mexico and see what a Napoleonic government is like to live under.
Do you really believe all this is for your safety? Ever hear of how you can kill a frog without it jumping away and just taking it? Just put it in a pot and keep warming the water until it gets to the boiling point..hotter and hotter..ever so slowly. If you do it too quickly, the frog would realize what is happening and just want to escape, but if you do it slowly and gradually it will just take it. We are no different. I have my doubts that too many criminals would take the train and bring their drugs with them. It will be the rest of us who will suffer. Wait until they are looking for someone and pick up the wrong person. What about if they want to check out your laptop or any personal affects? Be careful with what you wish for and believe..because there have been too many cases whereas the authorities are given an inch and will take a mile when it comes to individual liberties. When it came to border control authorities getting real criminals, our gov't would not support them. Take the case of Ramos and Compean who still sit in jail for trying to keep us safe. No, this is questionable what is happening on these trains and buses. It is not acceptable.
Hey "state legislator," guess what? The 100 mile rule also applies to airports that handle international flights. These airports are the "functional equivalent of the border," for flights entering the US from abroad, and Border Patrol Agents may conduct warrantless searches within 100 miles of these air ports of entries.
See you next time in secondary!
this guy has no credibility with me!
a CPS supervisor???? good lord!
Child Protective Services is a gustappo agency that takes kids away from their parents. they get significant bonuses for taking the kids away. they often take kids from loving homes to live in the foster care system. first thing that happens to these kids is they are injected with a PRN drug cocktail to make them obedient. do some searches on youtube for CPS or child protective services.
this guy is scum!
Its a downright embarassment to see even a couple of americans advocating that this sort of thing is ok. For those that do advocate this sort of thing, you are nothing but traitors to your nation.
You are wrong about the need to answer the agent's questions. There are a few court rulings in that regard (Martinez Fuerte & Brignone Ponce to name a few).
I feel your article misrepresents the purposes and actions of these agenicies.
Blame it on the Great Decider. He decided you had way too much freedom and he did something about it.
Way to go BP K9!!! Oh, and by the way folks, after that K9 alert, BP did not have to ASK permission to search the backpack. The dog's alert constitutes probable cause and thus, dive right in and search!!! If you folks don't like what happened above, don't travel!!!!
The MOST interesting thing about a "Constitution Free Zone" is that there is absolutely NO LAW in there.
Since the US Constitution is the baseline doucment for ALL LAW in America, and all Authority arises from that document, when accosted by any person acting as a "Federal Agent" you have the perfect right and unfettered ability to shoot him dead on the spot, and no legal reprecussion can fall upon you.
In other words, if there is no Constitution protecting YOU, there is also no Constitution protecting THEM.
K9Me, Perhaps that is the purpose behind these stop and search tactics, to get people to stop traveling. Maybe they are just saying to us "Just stay in your own little hometown, don't ask questions and don't venture outside your city limits."
Curious about the map from the ACLU. When did the Michigan-Wisconsin border thru Lake Michigan become an international border? They put Chicago, Milwaukee and Grand Rapids all in the "orange zone" yet they're all well over 100 miles from Canada. Is there something here I don't grasp or is ACLU geographically deficient?
Isn't the entire USA a Constitution-Free zone?
What I find most curious about the US/Mexican border is that the farther away from the border one goes, the more concerned about immigration people become. Down here along the border, the river doesn't divide us it brings us together. Militarization is a slippery slope. Locally, Homeland Security has become our largest industry generating more dollars in the local economy than tourism, ranching and general commerce. Our local economy now depends on a generous stream of DHS funds into the local economy. It is one thing to insist upon the creation of a police state in YOUR community - yet it is another thing altogether to impose one on a plurality of citizens who would prefer to solve the root problems rather than treating the economic, social and security symptoms. Like Barbon says, "In the future half of America will be in prison and the other half will be guarding them." The simple act of living involves risk and through the eternal pursuit of security a person dies the death of a thousand small cuts.
I would really be interested to know what the opinions of these people that feel that they're civil rights were violated, would be if the BP HAD found something or someone on that train that actually threatened their safety (including the safety of the State Rep who's sleeping daughter was on board)! Would they be so severe in their opionions about those so-called civil rights violations then?! It is infuritating that this country DEMANDS protection from our armed forces but whey they do their jobs - we scream VIOLATION! This doesn't make any sense.
My hat is off to the BP and their K9. And yes, it is a fact, that once the K9 "hits" on something, that's all the probable cause needed for search and/or seizure.
I am a law abiding citizen and have nothing to hide from any law enforcement agency that wishes to search me or my belongings - with or without "cause". If I'm not treated like a princess during the process, I'm certainly not going to cry about it on the news and whine about how my civil rights have been violated. If it were a situation where I was physically injured, without cause, then I would take it through the proper channels and deal with it like an adult, not a child that didn't get their way.
This isn't Dinsney World and our law enforcement and armed forces have an incredibly difficult job to do, many times without any acknowledgement for their willingness to do the types of jobs that the rest of us can't or won't do. I find it shameful that some of the people in this country can't find it within their realm of reason to understand that. I would call that the epitome of narcissm and selfishness. All the while, you are still being protected by these same people that you insist on verbally slaughtering.
To all who feel that protection of this country means a viloation of your civil rights......remember.....the very people that you speak out against, are the people that make it possible for you to have the FREEDOM to "speak out" in the first place. That is not a RIGHT it is a PRIVILEGE!! A privilege that has been bought and paid for with human lives. Human beings that have been; and, are still willing, to risk their own lives to protect the very FREEDOM that you take for granted. DON'T FORGET IT!!
In spite of us all - I pray - THAT GOD WILL STILL BLESS THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!
Well J, I don't mind that you enjoy being pinned beneath the iron boot of government, but I find your willingness to force the rest of us into the same position disturbing.
J, you have absolutely no clue. I can't believe that someone could be so ridiculously ignorant, but still manage to know how to work a computer.
1) Good God, IF horses were wishes...., so, I can pat you down anytime I want because you might possibly maybe be thinking about carrying something I don't like? Seriously, this is logical? No, and it is a violation of the 4th amendment.
2) WE don't DEMAND armed protection. YOU apparently do, and some of your friends, fine I accept that, but don't make ridiculous unsubstantiated claims about what everyone wants or demands.
3) I used to train German Shepards, dogs will "hit" on a lot of things, to make their handlers happy, doesn't mean there is anything to hit on. Read a book about dog training and illuminate yourself you moron.
4) YOU ARE NOT A LAW ABIDING CITIZEN. If you were even AWARE of the thousands of laws you live under and break everyday, you would be terrified of being arrested for anything. Once again, you are a moron.
5) The need or want to be free is narcissism? Do you even know what that word means? Do you see communist Russia or Nazi Germany as the paragon of a structured society of self sacrifice?
6) The people that repress me make me free? Is that what you are saying? Have you heard of the term "doublethink"?
7) NO it's a RIGHT, not a PRIVILEGE, or so our founding fathers, our constitution, and our common law states. As well as the bible you obviously own but don't read.
Please everyone, ignore the idiotic hysteric J.
Walks like a police state, talks like a police state, feels like a police state...chances are it is a police state.
One wonders who or what the BP agents were looking for. Did someone wearing a badge simply decide to stop and search a moving passenger without regard to to the fact that the delay might cause hundreds of people to miss adjoining transportation and/or important meetings? Perhaps the agents regarded the dangerous "pipe" discovered during their illegal search ample justification for their terrifying, intrusive and completely unjustified police state exercise. What is next I wonder? Can we expect to regularly hear someone wearing a state issued costume demand, "May I see your (travel) papers please?" Sadly, with "security" now routinely trumping the Fourth Amendment, even asking such questions has become exercise in futility. I am not surprised that tax feeding AMTRAK employees meekly welcome random rapes of its peaceful paying customers.
Woo, I am scared. You are an ACLU member. So, you used to steal children from law abiding white people. Serves you right.
Why is it that liberals when stopped always claim they are whiter than white? My family was in the U.S. since before the War of Independence. So? When you cross a border you can be searched. And that search can be up to 25 miles from the border. Who cares if you are a retired bureaucrat. I am sure you did not give families the right to refuse you to enter their homes to steal their children and search their house.
J,
there has been some good case law developing recently showing that Dog "hits" are less and less useful as probable cause, due to the fact that the dog is trying to please the trainer, and will "hit" whenever the trainer wants them to, clever Hans effect.
More importantly, to J and also Federale, I don't want you trying to protect me inside the US, do your job at the border, and I will take care of me and mine inside the country. stop these inane and useless prohibitions on persons carrying their own means of defense on mechanisms of mass transit.
And most importantly understand that you can be free or you can be safe, and this country was founded by people who wanted to be free. I think there are still enough of us here who value freedom over safety that we will push back the tide, and take back our political parties from the authoritarians.
Freedom, you need to grow up.
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