ICE & local police conduct traffic safety checkpoints so they can deport immigrants.

In a USA Today article, the comingling of local law enforcement agencies and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) in the southeast was made public. During a “seatbelt” checkpoint conducted last May by the Jackson County, North Carolina Sheriff’s Office, ICE implemented one of its many initiatives to ensure that the number of criminal deportations achieved the prior year’s level. In simpler terms: a quota.

Why were ICE officers concerned with enforcing local seatbelt laws, you may be wondering? They weren’t. They were there to interrogate drivers about their immigration status. Many U.S. citizens and lawful residents were detained for up to 45 minutes on their way to work to prove their immigration status, and fifteen aspiring citizens were taken into ICE custody that morning.

The ACLU of North Carolina launched an investigation into this checkpoint, which included a Freedom of Information Act request to ICE. The findings were disturbing. Along with implementing a policy of participating in checkpoints throughout the southeast, ICE also proposed rummaging through North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles records for immigrants who applied for a driver’s license but could not meet the immigration requirements imposed by a 2006 state law. Another ICE initiative was to deem individuals with no operator’s license as criminal aliens.

This system breeds violations of constitutional rights, and promotes racial profiling by ICE officers and local law enforcement agencies. The former supervisor of ICE field offices, David Venturella, was quoted in today’s USA Today article as saying that many of John Morton’s aides seemed to think that their careers depended on the number of deportations going up. Accounts of how the checkpoint initiative was implemented by the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office suggest that sheriff’s deputies stopped only Latino drivers during the checkpoint and that drivers who were wearing their seatbelts and hold valid North Carolina driver’s licenses were pulled over to be interrogated by ICE.

These tactics, and racial profiling in particular, violate the right guaranteed by our Constitution to be treated equally under the law. Racial profiling is ineffective, wasteful, and unconstitutional law enforcement that regularly deprives people of their freedom without due process. ICE’s practices cast a dragnet where law-abiding, hard-working, contributing members of our communities are caught, including U.S. citizens and lawful residents. They also highlight the need for the federal government to take affirmative steps to make sure this does not happen again, as well as the necessity of fixing our broken immigration system (including enforcement).

"If this is what ICE is currently doing, it's very problematic," said Gregory Chen, the director of advocacy for the American Immigration Lawyers Association. Chen said such tactics contradict immigration officials' public pledges to streamline enforcement by focusing on dangerous criminals and show that the agency instead sought to "increase its criminal alien numbers by pursuing people with minor offenses like traffic violations."
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2013/02/14/immigration-criminal-deportation-targets/1919737/

Two annual border conferences are scheduled in March & May I wonder if their agenda will cover the illegal checkpoints that are happening across America?

Border Management North - "Creating a Safe, Secure, and Efficient Border" (March 25 - 28, 2013 - DoubleTree Hilton Suites Detroit Downtown, Detroit, Michigan)

Excerpt:

The U.S. Canadian Border is the largest international land border in the entire world. Nearly $1.6 billion in trade as well as 300,000 people travel across the border on a daily basis. The U.S. and Canada share a unique relationship, and are focused on a joint effort to protect against terrorism and organized crime, while steadily advancing economic trade and growth, as detailed in the “Beyond the Border” action plan. In order to create a safe, and efficient border, it is imperative that threats are detected and rapidly dealt with, while trade is encouraged and efficiently facilitated.

Border North 2013, will bring together those who have an expertise on the topic of protecting our northern border with those who are seeking to implement it.

This year’s summit takes places at an interesting and innovative time in the implementation of border protection technology and management. In order to further explore these new and exciting advancements happening along the U.S. Canadian border this year’s summit will focus on preventing Terrorism, organized crime, trade facilitation, and cross border law enforcement. Join us in discussing advancements on the U.S. Canadian border such as Automated Targeting Systems (ATS), Remote Video Surveillance Systems (RVSS), Maritime Radar Systems, Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT), and the “Beyond the Border” action plan, and we can begin to work towards improving the security and efficiency of our shared border.
http://www.bordermanagementsummit.com/

Border Management Southwest - "Securing the U.S.-Mexico Border with Tactical Strategies and Technologies" (May 29 - 31, 2013 - Hilton Tucson El Conquistador Resort, Tucson, Arizona)

Excerpt:

An essential attribute of any nation is its ability to protect its citizens and to maintain control of its land, air, and sea borders. Defending the United States against its enemies is the first priority and number one commitment of the Federal Government. This means exerting and safeguarding sovereignty on the border as well as protecting vital national interests on the coast.

David Aguilar, Acting Commissioner, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said “U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers and agents are the frontline, the guardians of the Nation’s borders."

Today, the U.S. is faced with non-traditional challenges and irregular opponents who work in the shadows and choose not to fight on the battlefields of the past. They choose to exploit our weaknesses in defense and homeland security, of which our Nation’s borders play an enormous role. Various government agencies have chosen to work together to exchange information, share vital resources, and define the way forward to strengthen border management and security.
http://www.bordersouthwest.com/