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Sunday 1 July 2018

Immigration Crackdown Violating Rights of Millions of Innocent Citizens at 'Constitution-Free Zones'

Free Thought Project

Washington, D.C. – The Trump administration’s immigration crackdown has brought increased attention to the little known “Constitution-Free Zone” that extends 100 miles inland around the entirety of the United States. While the practice of Border Patrol employing “citizen checkpoints” within this zone is not a new practice, it has drawn increased scrutiny from civil libertarians and they’re increasingly popping up.

Most people would be surprised to know that far away from the border between the U.S. and Mexico, on highways in Maine, New Hampshire, and numerous other states, U.S. Customs and Border Protection checkpoints are stopping vehicles without any reasonable suspicion and asking them if they are legal U.S. citizens.

Incredibly, nearly two-thirds of the U.S. population lives within the 100-mile border zone, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, and it includes many major cities and several entire states, including Florida, Michigan, Maine, and Hawaii.

“Immigration police in this country are emboldened,” Gilles Bissonette, legal director of the ACLU of New Hampshire, said in a statement after 17 people were arrested during a Memorial Day weekend operation. “We’re seeing it not only nationally, but right here in New Hampshire.”

Government agents’ arbitrary checking of a person’s personal papers directly contradicts the entire letter and spirit of the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution, which guarantees that:

“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath of affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” 

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