A bona fide national stop-and-frisk program is now sanctioned by a variety of governmental agencies. 197 million Americans are now vulnerable to not only random stops, searches and seizures, but arrest and fingerprinting as well, all without reasonable suspicion, and all in the name of safety and security.
The perfect storm of policies that is in place guarantees almost two-thirds of Americans have virtually no Fourth Amendment protections.
A 2009 report from the Congressional Research Service says a “border search” exception was “derived from the sovereign right to stop and examine persons and property crossing into the country, border searches allow customs officials the flexibility to inspect incoming individuals and their belongings and to interdict incoming contraband without having to inform a magistrate before the search.”
This “border search” just isn’t limited to the border itself, but is allowable up to 100 miles inland.
According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection website, they have full authority to ask you your citizenship, the nature of your trip and about anything you are bringing back in the U.S. that you didn’t have when you left. This includes asking for proof of identification.
With the boarder patrol’s expanded jurisdiction, millions of Americans are susceptible to random, intrusive, and questionable legal Constitutional violations.
A recent report from Al Jazeera America has shed light on a new immigration deportation program designed to deport undocumented immigrants who have a history of violent crime.
The program, called the Criminal Alien Removal Initiative, was implemented in May 2012 to increase removals of specific “criminal aliens,” according to internal documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina.
What makes the program frightening, besides the fact that it is being used to arrest non-violent undocumented immigrants and protesters, is that during an arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials under CARI, they are using mobile fingerprinting devices to check immigration and criminal databases.
What’s happening during those arrests, even though CARI is a program designed to go after specific individuals, is that nearby, innocent people are being arrested and fingerprinted as well, regardless of citizenship status and nationality.
On the surface, the program sounds a wonderful addition to the tools our government uses to ensure our safety. While this program may seem beneficial to many communities across the country, it does set a dangerous.
