the neo cons have declared that 100 mi. inland from all our borders

is considered part of the border.

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http://blog.aclu.org/2008/10/22/homeland-security-assuming-broad-powers-turning-vast-swaths-of-us-into-constitution-free-zone/


Homeland Security Assuming Broad Powers, Turning Vast Swaths of U.S. into “Constitution-Free Zone”


You’re driving along a remote, dusty road, when suddenly you come upon a border patrol checkpoint. There, agents demand to see your identity papers, and search your car. You are taken by surprise, because you know you haven’t wandered across the Texas-Mexico border. In fact, you’re quite sure of that, because you’re driving through rural Wisconsin countryside west of Green Bay. Even the Canadian border is more than 90 miles away.


This scene is not as far-fetched as you might want to believe. The government is turning vast swaths of our country into a “Constitution-Free Zone” in which U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is allowed to exercise extraordinary authority that would not normally be permitted under the Constitution. The government says that “the border” — where there is a longstanding view that the Constitution does not fully apply — actually stretches 100 miles inland from the nation’s “external boundary.” And increasingly, we are seeing DHS vigorously utilize that authority.


Today we held a press conference at the National Press Club here in D.C. to try to draw attention to this problem — and the fact that, as we showed, nearly two-thirds of the U.S. population live within this "Constitution-Free Zone." That’s 197.4 million people.

-snip-

CBP has been setting up checkpoints far inland — on highways in states such as California, Texas and Arizona, and at ferry terminals in Washington State. Typically, the agents ask drivers and passengers about their citizenship. People are also reporting that even after they provide passports or state driver’s licenses, CBP continues to interrogate them and try to pressure them into permitting a search.

-snip-

I guarantee you that if these powers are not challenged, if the American people do not push back, sooner or later a factory worker in southern New Hampshire, a farmer in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, or yes, some guy driving across rural Wisconsin, will wake up to find that they have lost their right to go about their business, and travel around inside their own country, without interference from the authorities.
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don't you love it

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in addition to being ridiculously psychotic.....

wonder if the Key West Mayor knows this?

was created by the author. It's not a construct of DHS. I have lived close to America's busiest border crossing for many years and the Border Patrol is not playing silly games here.

The source of the article casts a shadow on its perspective.

If DHS was naming it, it would be something like "Super Patriotic Happy Fun Realm."

even saved the image to the hard drive:



It back to a http://www.roadblock.org/federal/caseUSmartinez.htm">1976 Supreme Court case that said that the government can set up such checkpoints within a hundred miles of the borders in order to check for illegals/smuggling provided that the stops were brief and not fishing expeditions. DHS is stretching the decision to the point of breaking.

But then again, weakening constitutional rights is like getting a little bit pregnant...

nt

Including the East, where the constitution was born.

How badly do we want world peace?

What the hell is up with the hundred miles in from the fucking ocean?

At least in intent.

I mean, I lived for 20 years within a mile of the border, and never once saw a Border Patrol agent, heard of a Border Patrol, and didn't see any immigrants (legal or illegal) that crossed the border within 30 miles of where I lived.

I have to limit it to "30 miles" because we lived maybe 35 miles from an international airport. Presumably when I was there I saw some people that "crossed the border" there. (Hey--wait a minute! If we include the dividing line between the international zones at airports and passport control as "border", we should be able to get at least 90% of the population living within 100 miles of the border!)

I have been stopped by Border Patrol agents 20-50 miles from the Mexican border. Mostly when driving from Nogales to Tucson. A time or two driving east-west west of El Paso, along a major illegal immigration corridor. Big deal? Nope. I must not look suspicious enough.

Fear. Terror. Yawn.

Just thought I'd point that out.

and Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Rhode Island.

I think I may have ridden the ferry every day. No cops, no questions, no nothing.

his January "UNDO" list. I am so sick of all this Booo$h Admin fear nonsense, can't wait till we have some common sense in office.

like they're having such fun doing in Iraq and the rest of the ME. Permanent "terra" right here at home, the neocon's wettest wet dream.