As our infographic shows, this year the greater share was seized by the biggest CBP branch, the Office of Field Operations. This arm of CBP mans all 328 ports of entry (seaports, airports, border crossings etc.) while Border Patrol officer operate out in the open between those ports.
(ANTIMEDIA) In the waning years of the Obama administration, Customs and Border Protection agents had a bad habit of conducting warrantless searches of cellphones and laptops. Documents released to the American Civil Liberties Union under Freedom of Information Act requests revealed that Border Patrol agents searched over 6,500 people from October 2008 to June 2010. Though we are less than 100 days into the Trump Era, the focus on immigration raids and deportation seems to have contributed to an atmosphere of police state measures.
In early March, NBC News highlighted the rise in violations of basic rights, including an increase from 5,000 warrantless searches in 2015 to 25,000 in 2016. This data from the Department of Homeland Security also shows that an astonishing 5,000 people were searched along the border in February 2017. In response to these searches, four members of Congress have introduced legislation that would require border agents to get a warrant before performing a search of someone’s cell phone, laptop, or tablet. The bill was simultaneously introduced by Senator Ron Wyden and Representatives Jared Polis and Blake Farenthold. If the measure becomes law, it will require border agents to have probable cause and a warrant before accessing the contents of a device belonging to a U.S. citizen or permanent resident. The bill also makes it clear that agents cannot hold individuals for more than four hours in an attempt to force them to unlock their devices.
“If the bill is passed it would effectively prohibit CBP from doing what it does now, which is searching and seizing devices of U.S. persons,” Neema Singh Giuliani, legislative counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, told The Intercept.
Senator Wyden has often criticized invasive surveillance and violations of Fourth Amendment protections guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. In February, Wyden sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security seeking information on CBP searches. The Customs and Border Protection believes they have the right to search without warrants as part of their mission to secure the border. The CBP notifies the public of this belief in their tearsheet, which acknowledges that federal agents can search phones and make copies for forensic analysis. The CBP searches are backed by Supreme Court rulings that found people crossing the border have fewer protections under the Fourth Amendment. The court has not specifically ruled on whether or not cell phones are subject to force, although they have ruled that warrantless searches of phones are illegal inside the country.
“Searches of people at the border is an area where there’s a wide gap between what we think people’s rights are and what their facts are on the ground,” Nathan Freed Wessler, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, told Business Insider. “Various courts haven’t had an opportunity to weigh in on these issues yet, so CBP is operating with a lot of claimed authority and a lot of latitude.”
Until the Supreme Court weighs in, Border Patrol agents will continue to search electronic devices by the thousands. In fact, federal agents along the borders of the United States violate constitutional rights so often that it has come to be known as a “Constitution-Free Zone.” Earlier this year, it was reported that the White House is exploring the possibility of scanning the social media accounts of all incoming visitors to the United States. President Trump’s rhetoric and ramping up of police state measures in the name of fighting illegal immigration has set the tone for policing along the border. The new bill could potentially slow down the march towards a totalitarian border, but ultimately, it will take the people standing up — together — to fight against tyranny. We should be wary of those who attempt to sell security at the cost of liberty.
President Trump’s rhetoric and ramping up of police state measures in the name of fighting illegal immigration has set the tone for policing along the border. The new bill could potentially slow down the march towards a totalitarian border, but ultimately, it will take the people standing up — together — to fight against tyranny. We should be wary of those who attempt to sell security at the cost of liberty.
Miguel Perez Jr., of Chicago, Illinois, is a battle-scarred U.S. Army War veteran who proudly displays his patriotism in the tattoos he wears; a Statue of Liberty, a battle cross representing a fallen soldier, as well as the U.S. Army Special Forces insignia that reads “To liberate the oppressed.”
Even though Perez, who was born in Mexico, served two tours of duty during the Gulf War, the same government he fought for is now trying to deport Perez back to the country of his birth. The 38-year-old is fighting deportation because he was caught with cocaine back in 2012. While in prison, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) identified Perez as a candidate for deportation, even though he grew up in the U.S. since he was 8. Perez, who’s married, also has American-born children, “anchor-babies” as some wish to characterize them. That fact alone should be enough to keep Perez from being deported, but the government is weighing all its options, nonetheless.
Perez’ mother said when he returned home from the war, he got caught up in the wrong crowd. Chicago immigration judge Robin Rosche will decide the Army veteran’s fate. His lawyer, Chris Bergin is using a United Nations resolution against torture as defense against the deportation.
According to the Chicago Tribune Burgin “argued in court Monday that his client’s life would be in danger if he were sent back to Mexico, where he hasn’t lived since he was 8. According to human rights activists and advocates for deported veterans, drug cartels target former U.S. residents, especially veterans with combat experience, to work on their behalf, and those who don’t comply are at risk.”
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The fear is when and if Perez gets deported, he’ll be used to push the drug cartels’ agendas, possibly being militarized for violent actions on behalf of the organization. Bergin said, “There’s a pattern of impunity of the government either participating or looking the other way clearly in human rights abuses,” placing the burden on the U.S. government to ensure his safety if deported.
Anastasie Senat, ICE lawyer for the Department of Homeland Security said, “I understand it’s a sympathetic case because he has served our country…But it is Congress’ law that I’m called to enforce and that we are called to enforce and to respect, and in this situation there is no discretion.”
In a recent hearing before the judge, Perez addressed the seriousness of the decision whether or not he gets deported. “This is the same as somebody fighting a life sentence,” Perez told Judge Rosche. “The outcome of this determines the rest of my life spent away from my society, my way of life, my loved ones and not to mention, my country. … This is my country regardless of what happens here.”
The final hearing took place in February. Judge Rosche has yet to make a ruling with is expected any day now. Perez’ immigration case began mid-way through President Obama’s second term in office. But with a renewed push to deport undocumented immigrants by the Trump administration, more cases like Perez’ will likely arise.
The Army veteran’s participation in the illegal drug trade also serves to illustrate just how failed the American war on drugs really is. We’ve devolved so far as a society that a green-card-holding Army veteran who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder from blast-related injuries, can potentially be deported for getting caught up in the failed drug war’s dragnet.
READ MORE:Pope Francis Calls Out War on Drugs and How Its "Corruption" Reaches "Politics, Military, and Religion"
Whether or not the Trump administration chooses to show compassion towards Perez’ case, and intervene, is yet to be seen. All the family can do now is wait, and hope that their father, husband, and son doesn’t get kicked out of the country he once loved enough to fight for.
During the war on terrorism, Americans compromised their liberties to fight for freedom. Now, during the war on immigration, Americans will again be compelled to sacrifice liberties for American sovereignty.
In the name of security, anywhere, anytime. All measures will be justified, everyone will be authorized and the population will be controlled.
That is the moment we have arrived at in America.
A combination of policies that President Obama put into place, as well as fresh executive orders put in place by President Trump’s executive orders, have created a new front in the world of national security. They are now using biometrics to verify passport and identity, in the name of cracking down on immigration.
Additional scrutiny, and an over-bearing scent of gestapo is again cropping up in airports, as yet another layer of surveillance is added to the line up.
Here’s a look at one version of the machines now being tested and phased in at airports and other checkpoints:
Both visitors from abroad, and American citizens alike have now been required to submit to biometric iris scans in order to board a flight. Wow.
For some 15 years, airport security has become steadily more invasive. There are ever more checkpoints, ever more requests for documents as you make your way from the airport entrance to the airplane. Passengers adapt to the new changes as they come. But my latest flight to Mexico, originating in Atlanta, presented all passengers with something I had never seen before.
We had already been through boarding pass checks, passport checks, scanners, and pat downs. At the gate, each passenger had already had their tickets scanned and we were all walking on the jet bridge to board. It’s at this point that most people assume that it is all done: finally we can enjoy some sense of normalcy.
This time was different. Halfway down the jetbridge, there was a new layer of security. Two US Marshals, heavily armed and dressed in dystopian-style black regalia, stood next to an upright machine with a glowing green eye. Every passenger, one by one, was told to step on a mat and look into the green scanner. It was scanning our eyes and matching that scan with the passport, which was also scanned (yet again).
Like everyone else, I complied. What was my choice? I guess I could have turned back at the point, decline to take the flight I had paid for, but it would be unclear what would then happen. After standing there for perhaps 8 seconds, the machine gave the go signal and I boarded.
I talked to a few passengers about this and others were just as shaken by the experience. They were reticent even to talk about it, as people tend to be when confronted with something like this.
I couldn’t find anyone who had ever seen something like this before. I wrote friends who travel internationally and none said they had ever seen anything like this.
I will tell you how it made me feel: like a prisoner in my own country. It’s one thing to control who comes into a country. But surveilling and permissioning American citizens as they leave their own country, even as they are about to board, is something else.
This isn’t required for all flights, yet.
This writer encountered a Homeland Security / U.S. Customs and Border Protection test at select airports… they are still working out the kinks.
But the question is, after all the frustrations that Americans had with flying after 9/11, and watching their liberties sacrificed at the alter security, after dealing with ridiculously long lines – are Americans now willing sacrifice even more liberties and submit their biometric scans?
Unfortunately, they may be.
As a general mass, Americans have proved underwhelming in their opposition to invasions of privacy on the part of private corporations, especially those online and in computing and communication devices. They have also shrugged off and become immune to fifteen years of airport harassment and additional checks and scans.
Now, iris scans might even one day make security faster – but it’s a devilish tradeoff, and an enormous trust of power an agency that was created into existence out of the 9/11 emergency atmosphere, and which grows only when feeding the machine fear and terror.
Update: a reader has pointed me to this page at Homeland Security:
As part of U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) border security mission, the agency is deploying new technologies to verify travelers’ identities – both when they arrive and when they leave the United States – by matching a traveler to the document they are presenting. CBP’s goal is to enhance national security and protect a traveler’s identity against theft through the use of biometrics.
Biometric information (such as finger, face, or iris) measures a person’s unique physical characteristics. CBP incorporated fingerprints for biometric identification and verification in 2004, and is now testing facial and iris imaging capabilities to help improve travelers’ identity protection, the integrity of our immigration system, and our national security.
I happened to be on the “one daily flight” that gets exit scanned.
[…]
What people don’t often consider is that every rule that pertains to immigration ultimately applies to emigration as well. Every rule that government has to treat immigrants a certain way also necessarily applies to citizens as well.
Chandran Kukathas is right when he says that “controlling immigration means controlling everyone.” (source)
It looks like their tests have so far met with very little resistance, and all signs green, as support for Trump’s new order of police, border, military and security agencies are given new mandates to enforce laws, and take necessary measures to control borders, verify individuals and protect the country. That’s the narrative, and Americans are cheering it on with very little forethought about the consequences it could hold.
For now, Americans are willing to accept new controls.
That is, if nobody reawakens to the massive civil liberties issue that is going on.
Welcome Aboard, But First US Marshals Will Scan Your Retina,BECAUSE YOU ARE NOT FREE
