Federal Agents Arrest Illegal Immigrants LEAVING U.S.
May 7th, 2008It’s practice for what’s coming. Illegal immigrants now. American thought criminals later.
* You weren’t planning on being able to avoid those pesky databases at the airport by simply driving out, were you? *
Also, the Feds may be robbing people who are carrying cash, or taking their DNA. We don’t know because, as the article below states, the government, “Would not disclose details of the checkpoint operation.”
Via: Los Angeles Times:
U.S. border authorities no longer apprehend illegal immigrants only as they enter the country. Now they’re catching them on the way out.
At random times near the Tijuana-San Diego border, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers have been setting up checkpoints, boarding buses destined for Mexico and pulling off people who don’t have proper documentation.
The operation appears to be an expansion of a broader federal crackdown targeting illegal immigrants in jails, airports and workplaces across the country.
The checkpoints, which are not announced in advance, are set up on southbound Interstate 5 about 100 yards north of the border. Vehicles in all lanes must stop.
Vincent Bond, an agency spokesman, said departing immigrants are fair targets.
“If our officers come upon people who are here illegally . . . regardless of whether they’re leaving the country, we detain them, make a record of the fact they were here illegally and return them to Mexico,” Bond said.
…
Customs and Border Protection, which typically provides detailed statistics on apprehensions, would not disclose details of the checkpoint operation. Nor would they say how long it has been underway.
The checkpoints have been randomly deployed since the Sept. 11 attacks, with inspectors typically looking for fugitives, stolen vehicles, weapons, drugs and other contraband.
Illegal immigrants became targets for arrest at the checkpoints only a few months ago, according to immigrant rights groups and human rights organizations in Mexico. It is unclear how frequently the checkpoints have been set up.
But Enrique Morones, president of the Border Angels, a San Diego-based group, said he believes that hundreds of immigrants have been arrested since the crackdown began.
Over a half-hour period April 30, agents appeared to be pulling over every bus and van heading for the border. But any vehicle, including cars, that agents deem suspicious may be stopped and searched.
Inspectors detained five young men from one bus traveling from Los Angeles to Puebla, a city southeast of Mexico City. After the inspectors made their apprehensions, only two passengers remained onboard.
…
Federal agents say the checkpoints are a productive way to stop dangerous criminals, drug shipments and money launderers.
The illegal immigrants they apprehend are typically turned over to the U.S. Border Patrol for processing. Unless they have serious criminal records or numerous immigration violations, most are returned to Mexico within a few hours, the agents say.
Wayne Cornelius, director of the Center of Comparative Immigration Studies at UC San Diego, said he was not aware of similar crackdowns in the past. The checkpoints make sense for intercepting contraband, but targeting illegal immigrants voluntarily leaving the country is a “bizarre” way of handling the illegal immigration question, he said.
Or, they don’t want to let all that nice, ultra-cheap labor out of the country. And if, by being forced to stay here, they end up in our prisons, hey, more’s the better! Now we have even cheaper labor!
It’s the Invisible Hand, and it’s all good! Bend over, America!
So the US emphasis on border security is now extending to border containment. Or are the two even comparable? Think for a little while about what countries prioritize border containment.
Now let’s hear what the US State Department has to say: “…robust emergency coordination between Canada, Mexico and the United States will be critical during a pandemic. A successful North America border-containment strategy will benefit from efficient information sharing among SPP member countries.”
For numerous reasons law enforcement is virtually powerless against organized crime, the real bad news, so they bust peasants and college students to show the masses that they are “doing their job.”
You know. Stories like this are scary. After reading the new Naomi Klein book called The Shock Doctrine I am scared to go to US to visit my family. You realize that you may be mistaken for terrorist and you have no rights. You may never bee seen again and if you are you may be not the same person you were before they tortured you. It is freaking me out a bit. What if I can’t get back out again? How did my opinion of America change so rapidly since 2001? Border containment has a Nazi Germany feel to it. What have they done to my country.
Mad Ruski: you are precisely the kind of person that this BS is being initiated for! I figure that there are three viable things Americans can do to deal with the fascism and coporogov we have now in the US: dig in and deal with it as best you can, leave the country and NEVER come back, or get off the grid and out of the system (that is, rescind your SSN, which would mean you can never drive again “legally” under color of law, and undergo many other lifestyle changes).
Can’t get in. Can’t get out. Papers, please! Potential visitors to the U.S. take note: We have the highest rate of incarceration in the “free” world. We also have one of the highest rates of executions. We also have one of the highest rates of wrongful convictions. Take the advice of this “free” American. Be safe and spend your Euros in Europe.