The presidential election has put the focus on the US-Mexico border security and curbing illegal immigration.
As Simon Thompson reports that has some concerned what this political posturing is going to mean for the quality of life in border communities.
In the Unites States Of America the fourth amendment of the U.S. Constitution is supposed to protect citizens from random and arbitrary stops and searches.
Locals in Fort Hancock, Texas say they live in “Almost America” because a lot of these basic Fourth amendment rights don’t apply here or in any part of the country within 100 miles of the U.S. border or ports of entry.
Jim Ed Miller is a Hudspeth County, Texas commissioner. He says federal border agents are stopping, questioning, and searching residents on a daily basis with no suspicion of wrongdoing.
“For me where I live if I want to go to the county seat I have to prove that I am a citizen” Miller said. “I don’t think between Lincoln and Omaha Nebraska they have to do that. Why not? Are they better Americans than we are, than I am?” Miller said.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsOh2wOueqc&feature=youtu.be
While the border has been the same since 1848, Miller says Hudspeth County residents weren’t always subject to this kind of security detail. The border patrol presence has increasingly focused on internal enforcement since 9/11.
“I am standing in Hudspeth County, Texas where the US-Mexico border fence abruptly ends. Intentionally or not it has made private properties like this one a thoroughfare for migrants and traffickers.” Miller said
Miller says while of lot of migrants cross the border on to his cotton farm he says more damage is done by the border patrol running over his property to apprehend them.
“We have had pipelines run over, we have had fences torn down, we have had concrete lined ditches broken we had rows in our cotton fields stomped down, reclamation district had a truck run over” Miller said.
Miller says over the years frequent damage to private property has been costly he says his applications to Washington D.C. for reimbursement have been denied.
But Miller says the Border Patrol didn’t always operate internally like this.
“When growing up here they stayed pretty much on the border, today you’ve heard it they are on our state high ways, our interstates farms ranches. Not on the border!” Miller said
Miller says while the flow of migrants has varied enforcement dramatically increased after 9/11. And he’s concerned the current immigration debate spurred on by the Presidential election may further increase Border Patrol surveillance.
“Yes it will infringe more on our rights if they all get on the border now. I don’t know that we need more border patrol or more equipment.” Miller said.
The Department of Homeland Security says illegal immigration has fallen to its lowest levels in at least two decades.
But public concerns about US border security have increased in recent years.
A 2014 Gallup poll found 77% of Americans said it was "extremely" or "very important" than the government take steps to control U.S. borders to halt the flow of illegal immigration.
The Department of Justice established the 100-mile border zone in 1953. At the time, there were fewer than eleven hundred Border Patrol agents nationwide; today, there are over 21,000.
Miller says Border Patrol efforts need to be constitutionally sound. And he’s not alone. On YouTube countless videos show people objecting to infringements at interior Border Patrol checkpoints. People want to know why I am being stopped when I’m not at the border?
The American Civil Liberties Union objects to the internal checkpoints.
The ACLU says Border Patrol agents routinely ignore or misunderstand the limits of their legal authority. The organization adds quote “although the 100-mile border zone is not literally ‘Constitution free,’ the U.S. government frequently acts like it is.”
KRWG reached out to the U.S. and Customs Border Patrol, but they did not respond in time for comment.
