The First Word in “Border Patrol” is — “BORDER”
September 22nd, 2008 | by Tom Harper |I live near the Canadian border. In fact I can see Vancouver Island (British Columbia) from my house. According to some people, that makes me a foreign policy expert. But I digress…
The Border Patrol has a strong presence here, since we’re at an international border. That’s fine. But lately the Border Patrol has been holding highway checkpoints far, far away from the Canadian border.
This has been pissing off a lot of people. It’s by far the most divisive issue in this area. The local paper is full of letters to the editor, pro and con. I’ve done several posts about it at my local blog, and they’ve drawn more comments than every other local issue put together.
There’s a strong need to protect the border — no argument there. In 1999 an Algerian terrorist was intercepted at the border here. This was two years before the September 11th attacks.
But at these highway checkpoints, they aren’t just looking for terrorists and illegal aliens, even though that’s their stated purpose. They’ve also been arresting people for drug possession, among other things. One person was arrested for possession of medical marijuana. He had a prescription that was legal in the State of Washington but in violation of federal law. Again, this arrest took place miles and miles from the Canadian border. What the fuck does this have to do with terrorism and illegal immigration?
Unless there’s something unique about this area, I’m guessing this same issue is raging among millions of Americans who live near the Canadian and Mexican borders.
What do you think about this? Are these Border Patrol highway checkpoints making us safer? Or is this just another back door for Big Brother to invade everybody’s private life?
4 Responses to “The First Word in “Border Patrol” is — “BORDER””
By Ken Grandlund on Sep 22, 2008 | Reply
It is the same here in the south,a t least in CA and AZ. We have checkpoints as far as 60 miles north of the Mexican border on I-5.
And there are other border checkpoints on I-8 that are quite far from the border too, some on the way up towards Phoenix and probably close to the 100 mile threshhold that BP has legal jurisdiction in.
And yes, they too do more than just detain illegal immigrants.
It is part of the militarization of the borders and the growing police state in America.
By Lisa on Sep 22, 2008 | Reply
So what they bring drugs over and the agents should look the other way?
So we can only arrest terror suspects? What about gang members who by the way usually smuggle drugs across.
So one guy gets arrested for pocession of medical Marijuana and I am sure he is okay now.
If they are suspicious of something they have a right to search. Last I heard it was illegal to smuggle drugs across the border.
Sixty miles from the border? Is there anything between those checkpoints and the borders?
By Liberal Jarhead on Sep 23, 2008 | Reply
Yup, same here in NM too, on I-25 around 90 miles north of the border and well north of a lot of junctions with enough east-west highways that anyone who was actually a terrorist with a clue would never pass by. And if they did, all they’d need to do would be to have someone like me with white skin and blue eyes driving, because I just get waved through while anyone with brown skin and dark hair and eyes is likely to get stopped and harassed.
The persecution of people for medical use of marijuana is nothing but fundamentalist sadism. Somehow I suspect that if people like John Ashcroft got cancer - that Ashcroft who was so hyper about medical marijuana that on Sept. 10, 2001 it was high on his radar screen while counter-terrorism wasn’t even in his budget submission despite explicit warnings from the previous administration about Al Qaeda - they might decide that being able to get some relief from the nausea from their chemo might not be so evil after all.
If our government wasn’t too ignorant and punitive to set reasonable policies about drugs, they wouldn’t be a profit center for criminals. Duh. The best thing that ever happened to organized crime in America was Prohibition, which was also driven by fundamentalists trying to legislate their version of morality.
By Peppard on Oct 6, 2008 | Reply
The Border Patrol present an ever increasing danger to Americans as they are acting as Shock Troops for an Emerging Police State. The Border Patrol internal US Checkpoints and Roadblocks are Police State Totalitarian tactics, where US Citizens are accosted by Government Thugs who terrorize regular people out walking their dogs or going to the
Supermarket, demanding that these people present proof of citizenship or be arrested and hauled off to jail. There have actually thousands of American Citizens who have been hauled off to Federal jails by these Border Patrol thugs for not being able to prove US citizenship instantly on
demand, as if people should take their Passport with them on their person every time they leave their front porch. Some poor bastard US Citizens have actually been deported to Mexico. How’s that for screwing up!
the Border Patrol threatens over 75 % of Americans, as they claim they have the right to throw up roadblocks and Nazi-style Checkpoints anywhere within 100 miles of any border,(the Oceans included). The Border Patrol conducts illegal searches of thousands of cars at these fascist Checkpoints, making a mockery of the Bill of Rights and the
ideals of our Nations’ Founding Fathers. The handful of undocumented aliens who are caught at these Checkpoints are definitely not worth the cost to our Freedom that the Checkpoints inflict on our Nations’ Dignity.
The Border Patrol needs to be told in no uncertain terms by the American People that they need to get back to the actual Borders, where they belong, and if they did their job there like they are supposed to in the
first place, then maybe they wouldn’t feel the need to terrorize American Citizens in the Towns and Neighborhoods where we live.
Of course, I fear the Border Patrol may be actually doing a different “job” for the Bush
Administration, which sinisterly appears to be conditioning American Citizens to Obey Authority, to give up our Freedom in exchange for the illusion of “Security”, and to gradually accept and adjust to an
emerging American Totalitarian Police State.
Americans need to wake up to this danger and to fight back to protect whatever Civil Liberties we have left after 8 years of assaults by the Bush Administration.