Documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona show that there have been “widespread acts of abuse and impunity” in U.S. Border Patrol interior checkpoints and patrol operations that happen far from the border.
The ACLU’s report, co-authored with two University of Arizona law professors, says the Border Patrol documents—which were gotten through an ACLU Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the agency—detail agents “terrorizing” motorists “into the interior of the country;” detaining and searching travelers after false alerts by service canines; threatening people with assault rifles and other weapons; destroying personal property.
Problem is, “These abuse records substantially outnumber the annual complaint totals DHS oversight agencies disclosed to Congress,” the ACLU of Arizona press release says. Investigations into possible civil rights violations rarely happen, and despite many reports of abuse and corruption, the documents only mention one example of disciplinary consequences.
Also, numbers show the checkpoints aren’t as efficient as they are being portrayed. In 2013, Tucson Sector checkpoint apprehensions were 0.67 percent of the sector’s total apprehensions, the press release says. The same year, Yuma Sector checkpoint arrests of U.S. citizens “exceeded those of non-citizens by a factor of nearly eight (and in 2011, by a factor of 11):”
The report summarizes scores of civil rights complaints submitted to (the Department of Homeland Security) oversight agencies that do not appear to have been properly investigated, including:A Border Patrol agent in Green Valley, Ariz., followed a store employee into a parking lot, approached the individual with a service revolver drawn, ordered him to his knees, and handcuffed him. When other employees approached, the agent yelled, “Stay away or I’ll shoot you.” After ten minutes, the agent removed the handcuffs, released the employee, and drove away.
One complaint described multiple stops of the Tohono O’odham Community College school bus at the Highway 86 checkpoint, including one in which passengers were forced to disembark and submit to interrogation and searches of their personal effects before being released. Other records show Border Patrol monitoring Tohono O’odham community meetings and Know Your Rights events.
A Border Patrol agent reported a supervisor at Border Patrol’s Naco Station instructed agents to “stop any vehicle on the US/Mexican border road that is open to the public.” The supervisor allegedly “didn’t care if it was the Chief of the Border Patrol and the agent conducted a high risk traffic stop … at gun point” because he “would then know they were doing their job.”
The Nogales City Attorney’s Office reported racial profiling and abuse of authority after agents at the I-19 interior checkpoint relied on a claimed canine alert to detain and search the attorney. The complaint references a Deputy City Attorney detained and searched on other occasions on the basis of claimed or false canine alerts.
“Border Patrol’s own records show that the agency’s extra-constitutional police practices often result in abuses of border residents far into the interior of the country and with no consequences for the agents involved,” said ACLU of Arizona Attorney James Lyall in a statement to the media. “At a time of increasing national attention to police accountability, Congress and the Obama administration should not allow the Border Patrol to conceal this ugly reality from the American public.”
Check out the entire report on the ACLU of Arizona website.
This article appears in Oct 15-21, 2015.
A Border Patrol agent in Green Valley, Ariz., followed a store employee into a parking lot, approached the individual with a service revolver drawn, ordered him to his knees, and handcuffed him. When other employees approached, the agent yelled, “Stay away or I’ll shoot you.”
Bullshit, first of all the agents have not used a “service revolver” for decades, and the lies continue. Most complaints are pure liberal bullshit. Can anyone logically explain as to why these criminals are catered to over the will and rights of American citizens? Why are our immigration laws “broken” only for those sneaking in from south of the border, while all else must follow our immigration laws? Anyone?
Jim, Apparently you are ignoring the fact that there are many citizens of these united States who are of Spanish decent. A good example from several years ago was a good friend of mine who was Puerto Rican. He finally moved to the Phoenix area because he was constantly being harassed by Border Patrol personnel while traveling and/or in a shopping center parking lot, or …
People of Spanish decent who are citizens have rights too.
In fact, I’ll take it a step further, if you believe, as I do, that our rights are natural and do not come from government, then even those who are here illegally have certain unalienable rights too.
The checkpoints are a waste of time and money. No car is checked going west on Rte 86. The agents are lounging in the am, when people are driving west to Sells. In the pm, when many are driving east, there will be 10 agents hanging around and shooting the breeze under the ramada, while one agent is working the checkpoint of cars going east. No surprise they are not effective.
I have been stopped while driving by Border patrol agents in Arizona and New Mexico on numerous occasions, none of which involved my violating any laws. On Thanksgiving Day, 2012 we (my wife, myself, our oldest son and his wife) were followed by a rookie B.P. agent from the parking lot at the Columbus, NM port of entry (we had eaten dinner across the line at the Pink Store in Palomas, Chihuahua) three miles north back into our campsite at Pancho Villa State Park. He asked to search our vehicle and I refused. He gave his justification for following us back into our campsite as “you were driving too slow.” I told him I had broken no laws, was driving slower than the speed limit because there was no other traffic and he wasn’t going to search my vehicle. He left. That same holiday, while we driving from Bisbee to Columbus on AZ Highway 80, we came to an impromptu checkpoint manned by a dozen or so brand-new agents who had just been dumped out on the road on Thanksgiving Day and told to set up a checkpoint. There was no supervisor. They didn’t even have a porta-potty. Last March we were stopped on NM Highway 9, heading westbound between Santa Teresa and Columbus, by a rookie B.P. agent, who told me his reason for stopping us was that “our vehicle fit the profile for one they were looking for” I told him it appeared to me that his excuse was bullshit and he was stopping us because he felt like it and had nothing else to do. There is very little traffic on this road except B.P. agents and the rare person driving from Columbus to El Paso/Sunland Park. We were returning to Columbus after eating at Avordino’s Desert Crossing at Sunland Park, NM. We were in a 2001 RAV 4 with a roofbox on the top, camping at Pancho Villa State Park. In 2010 I was stopped on Purdy Lane near Naco while driving a clearly marked Cochise County pickup truck with an open bed by a very young B.P. agent. When I asked him why he stopped me he responded “you drove on Border Road and that road is a known smuggling route.” I told him that I had clients who lived along Border Road, that it was a legal county road that was used by many people who had legitimate business on it or lived along it and it was obvious that there was nothing illegal going on in a clearly marked county Chevy S-10 truck with an open bed. There are approximately 2,000 Border Patrol agents working along on near the border in Cochise County alone and who knows how many in Santa Cruz, Pima, Yuma, Counties in AZ, as well as Hidalgo, Luna and Dona Ana Counties in NM. Most of them are very young, inexperienced and without much supervision. Most have been professional in their dealings with us but the one between Columbus and Santa Teresa was a real asshole. Unsupervised rookies operating alone are a lawsuit waiting to happen.
Let me see if I understand this: You guys don’t want the border patrolled and kept safe from invaders, and you don’t want anybody to be able to own a firearm to protect themselves? But you do want marijuana legalized.
I gotcha.
My husband and I were accosted at the AZ 86 checkpoint back in August, most likely because I was driving whereas when he drives, we get waved through without incident because he’s a White man, while I’m Tohono O’odham with brown skin. We complained to the agent in charge and were promptly told we have no rights at a checkpoint. Needless to say a complaint has been filed with the ACLU.
I used to ride the bus back and forth to Mexico numerous times a year. I was a free wheeling, hippy minded young man with long hair and good looks. I came to expect harassment, multiple searches, inappropriate questions and paranoia about being blamed for something I did not do EVERY time I came back into the USA. Since then I have cut my hair and I could pass for a 50s TV show dad, I have been waved through more internal checkpoints than I’ve been stopped at but when I am stopped they are generally rude and assume you’re guilty. The border patrol and customs agents need more oversight. I’m White and clean cut. This is about abuse of power and bad law regarding where the BP can opperate and how to hold them accountable. My tip? Video tape your interactions, tell the agent they are being filmed and see what happens…..
I agree it is not always about race… I get stopped frequently while driving my full size van… just because it is a full size van. They have no other reason. I’m just near the border with a big car. Lack of training is a big problem. But a bigger problem is hiring ex-military who still think they are at war with someone, or everyone. Even bigger problem is that they can get away with murder…
markus_jim, not every single law enforcement officer in this country changed over from a revolver to a semi-automatic pistol. Many older ones get the option of keeping their revolver. Unless you work for the CBP and you’re in charge of the department that issues the guns to the agents, you have no clue whether any of them still have the revolver.
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