Posted on 11/12/2002 7:36:45 AM PST by The Energizer
Random traffic stops to take place in Michigan
KIMBALL TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) Federal agents plan to randomly stop drivers at unannounced, rotating checkpoints in Michigan, looking for illegal immigrants, terrorists and drug or weapon smugglers.
Starting Tuesday, U.S. Border Patrol agents at the checkpoints will ask passengers their citizenship and will have leeway to ask a host of follow-up questions, the Detroit Free Press reported.
The effort is part of President Bush's attempt to increase security along the northern border, said Immigration and Naturalization Service spokeswoman Karen Kraushaar.
``The terrorism component cannot be ignored in addressing border security,'' Kraushaar said.
According to federal law, the government may conduct searches and surveillance within 25 miles of any international border. The practice of checkpoints is common in southern border states such as Texas and California.
New York, Vermont and New Hampshire are among the northern border areas that already have similar programs in place, said Mario Villarreal, spokesman for the U.S. Border Patrol. Officials also set up a similar program in northwest Washington state over the weekend, he said.
``It's all about homeland security. Bottom line, we are here to be vigilant about the safety and security of the American people,'' INS spokesman Greg Palmore said before a news conference in St. Clair County.
Although agents will focus on finding undocumented immigrants, the checkpoints on the southern border have helped net drugs and weapons, patrol agents and officials said.
Michigan is home to about 350,000 Arab-Americans, with the population concentrated in the southeastern part of the state.
``It's all about homeland security. Bottom line, we are here to be vigilant about the safety and security of the American people,'' INS spokesman Greg Palmore said before a news conference in St. Clair County.
I didn't see "except within 25 miles of the border" in there.
Maybe if I read it backwards while I stare at a picture of Osama I'll see it....
Looking for illegals, this could fall under US v Martinez-Fuente, but that allowed fixed checkpoints. "Courts must consider the scope of the particular intrusion, the manner in which it is conducted, the justification for initiating it, and the place in which it is conducted." Roving checkpoints are more open to abuse.
Fairly well defined I'd say.
There's either a river, Lake Saint Clair, or one Great Lakes between Canada and Michigan.
There is no land to land border.
Detroit is right on the Detroit River, which is the international border,
so yes much of Detroit is within the 25 miles.
From United States v. Bulacan, 9th Cir. 1998:
Further, Congress has granted to the Executive plenary authority to conduct routine border searches to prevent the introduction of contraband into the country. See Montoya de Hernandez, 473 U.S. at 537
. The Court has noted that, under this power:
[r]outine searches of the persons and effects of entrants are not subject to any requirement of reasonable suspicion, probable cause, or warrant . . . . Automotive travelers may be stopped at fixed check points near the border without individualized suspicion even if the stop is based largely on ethnicity, and boats on inland waters with ready access to the sea may be hailed and boarded with no suspicion whatever.
Id. at 538 (footnote and citations omitted).
The issues here is what they mean by "rotating". If the checkpoint is fixed but manned on a rotating basis (as is presently done about 20 miles inland from the Mexican border) the plan will probably pass constitutional muster. If it means that the checkpoints will be set up at irregular locations, then you are right, there are constitutional implications.
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