America’s socialist system of immigration controls does not simply come with a “Do Not Enter Sign.” It comes with fierce enforcement measures. In fact, it comes with so much enforcement that people living in the borderlands have, over the decades of increasing immigration-law enforcement, come to live in what can only be called an immigration police state. To belabor the obvious, a police state is the opposite of a free society.
I have already addressed two aspects of America’s immigration police state: (1) domestic highway checkpoints inside the United States where people are forced to stop and be subjected to questioning, searches, and production of identification papers, just like in communist and totalitarian countries; and (2) warrantless searches of farms and ranches, especially on or near the border but also within 100 miles of the border, again just like in communist and totalitarian countries.
A third type of immigration tyranny is roving Border Patrol searches. Unlike the fixed, permanent highway checkpoints, these types of stops and searches occur on a totally random and arbitrary basis. Like domestic highway checkpoints, these roving Border Patrol checkpoints do not involve the use of a search warrant.
Here is how the process works. Border Patrol agents drive along roads and highways that lead to towns and cities along the border. They see a vehicle that they decide they want to stop and search. Like a traffic cop, they simply come up behind the vehicle, turn on their flashing lights, and pull the driver over to the side of the road.
Like a cop, the Border Patrol agent gets out of his vehicle, approaches the other vehicle, and asks the driver and passengers if they are American citizens. He might also ask them to produce identification papers. If it’s a car, he will order the driver to open the trunk so that he can search it. If he finds any contraband, including drugs, he will arrest the driver and possibly also the passengers for illegal possession.
Again, this is all done without a search warrant. Technically, under decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court, the agent is supposed to have what the law calls a “reasonable suspicion” that a crime is being committed. But the courts have upheld so many different factors that establish “reasonable suspicion” that for all practical purposes, the Border Patrol can stop whoever they want for whatever reason they want. If challenged, they simply come up with some ludicrous reason as to why the car was “suspicious,” like, “It seemed to riding a bit low.”
Moreover, Border Patrol agents know that the chances that someone is going to sue them for an illegal stop and search are virtually nil. After all, when one compares the damage suffered as a result of the stop to how much an attorney will charge to bring a lawsuit, most everyone quickly concludes that it’s just not worth it. Moreover, the agents know that they themselves will be held immune from any civil liability.
Since I grew up along the border, I saw this type of tyranny on a regular basis. When I was in high school, I became a victim of it. One day I was traveling on a highway outside of my hometown of Laredo, Texas, headed toward Port Aransas, Texas, to spend the weekend fishing with friends. Suddenly, there were the flashing lights from a Border Patrol car directing me to pull over.
I had done nothing to justify the stopping. The agent got out of his car and asked me for my identification papers, which I produced. He then ordered me out of my car and told me to open my trunk. I said no. I told him that he had no legal authority to stop me in the first place, much less search my vehicle.
He got furious, exclaiming to me, “Don’t you know about the drug problem we are having here on the border?” I responded, “You are a Border Patrol agent, not a DEA agent. You don’t have the legal authority to search my vehicle for drugs.” Growing angrier, he responded, “Well, I’ll be searching for illegal aliens, but if I happen to find drugs, I will take the necessary course of action.”
And then he said, “I will give you a choice. You can open your trunk here or you can follow me back to Border Patrol headquarters in Laredo, where we will open it for you there.” I caved, not only because I knew my friends were waiting for me but also because I was well aware of the fact that federal agents were planting drugs on hippies at the international bridge who were returning from Mexico. I didn’t want to take that kind of chance with that guy. I opened my trunk, he found nothing, and I proceeded to Port Aransas.
The father of my best friend in high school was head of the local Border Patrol unit. My friend told me later that his father told him that I was talk of the unit for standing up to that agent. Maybe my encounter had a positive impact on him and his cohorts, but most likely not.
That is what life is like in a police state. The big problem is that people become so accustomed to it over time that it all feels normal. Compounding the problem is the indoctrination that inculcates a mindset in people that they are living in a free society. People go around singing to themselves, “Thank God I’m an American because at least I know I’m free.” Such people reflect the words of Johann Goethe: “None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.”
The post America’s Immigration Police State: Roving Border Patrol Checkpoints appeared first on The Future of Freedom Foundation.
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