Patrick Eddington at Just Security writes that Senators are trying to get the border security zone reduced from 100 miles to 25 miles.
The Border Zone Reasonableness Restoration Act of 2019 (S. 2180, offered by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), and H.R. 3853, offered by Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT)) would reduce the “border zone” from 100 miles to 25 miles into the United States from the physical border, within which the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) may make vehicle stops and searches, and from 25 miles to 10 miles for DHS access to private property.
Citylab has mapped the border zone.
The border zone is home to 65.3 percent of the entire U.S. population, and around 75 percent of the U.S. Hispanic population, according to a CityLab analysis based on data from location intelligence company ESRI. This zone, which hugs the entire edge of the United States and runs 100 air miles inside, includes some of the densest cities—New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago. It also includes all of Michigan and Florida, and half of Ohio and Pennsylvania,
The chance of the Leahy Bill being passed in the Republican lead Senate are not good. So far the bill is a “democrat-only” affair and it is unlikely to attract many Republicans in the current anti-immigration atmosphere. The bill is also not without it’s problems.
I do worry, however, about the precedent being set by the mere introduction of a bill that would, if enacted, create a statutorily-sanctioned slice of America where you can be stopped, asked to prove your citizenship, and possibly be detained or even assaulted and held by federal agents for refusing to answer their questions.
The larger problem underlying the Leahy-Welch approach is the idea of permitting any geographic zone to exist—in statute—that allows fundamental constitutional rights to be suspended in the name of border security.
Patrick used a Freedom of Information request to obtain an internal Custom and Border Patrol document that states that “refusal to comply is not illegal”. However, all a Border Patrol Agent has to do is have “concerns” about whether a motorist and/or passenger are legally present in the USA to pull them over for a “secondary inspection”.
Just watch this video from 2017 of what happened when San Diego mother and middle school teacher Shane Parmely refused to answer Border Patrol questions. Note this occurred 30 miles from the border.
As John Whitehead states:
In this authoritarian reshaping of America, you’d better watch where you roam and ramble, because you could find yourself wandering into the government’s ever-expanding, Constitution-free zone where freedom is off-limits and government agents have all the power and “we the people” have none.
