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ACLU Creates Map of US "Constitution-Free Zone"
trackpick points out a recent ACLU initiative to publicize a recent expansion of authority claimed by the Border Patrol to stop and search individuals up to 100 miles from any US border. They have created a map of what they call the US Constitution-Free Zone. "Using data provided by the US Census Bureau, the ACLU has determined that nearly 2/3 of the entire US population (197.4 million people) live within 100 miles of the US land and coastal borders. The government is assuming extraordinary powers to stop and search individuals within this zone. This is not just about the border: This 'Constitution-Free Zone' includes most of the nation's largest metropolitan areas.'"
You seem to be surprisingly accepting of genuinely gestapo methodologies.
You have yet to provide any evidence of "gestapo methodologies."
And what's to stop them from walking around that one? Maybe another checkpoint further up the road? Perhaps we should just install checkpoints every 50 miles on every major road just in case.
The more hurdles you put in place, the harder it is for the smuggling to go on. Will it ever be perfect? I never claimed it would. You adjust your tactics to the situation at hand, you watch the data, and you keep tuning the system as best you can. The smugglers' current tactic is to walk people across the border in a non-checkpointed location, then hook up with a carrier to try to go to cities. If the smugglers change tactics, we have to adapt methods as well.
Two checkpoints beats the one static "at the border" checkpoint. Making the secondary checkpoints mobile makes it harder for the smugglers to plan swap-offs and march their cargo around the second point, and when you see someone come up to a checkpoint and turn around to route around it, you had better send someone to pull them over and search them.
And before you whine about them "not doing anything wrong" if they turn and flee the mobile checkpoint, remember: The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that flight from the police is, itself, sufficient Probable Cause for a search. (Terry v. Ohio, Illinois v. Wardlow).