Border-Law Misconceptions Prevalent

Everyone has a different take on people’s rights along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The American Civil Liberties Union, long critical of the Border Patrol, is advocating civilian review of the agency. The ACLU doesn’t necessarily want to see border laws changed--just properly enforced.

But Henry Quintero, a Silver City lawyer angered by the treatment of Hispanics living along the border, argues the Border Patrol’s procedures should be changed, and perhaps the law as well.

So what are these laws? What can and can’t border agents do?

While the Constitution generally protects against unreasonable stops, interrogations or searches, “those rules are different along the region of the border than in the rest of the country,” U.S. Attorney John Kelly said in Albuquerque.

“At a port of entry, there are virtually no constitutional protections in terms of the right of the INS and Customs to inspect and question people who are entering the country. An individual entering the country should be prepared to answer any question and have their personal effects searched,” he said.

Likewise, within about a mile of the border, people are subject to warrantless searches and interrogation. Within 100 miles of the border, agents don’t need probable cause to stop someone, Kelly said.

“The Border Patrol is authorized to stop a vehicle on the highway if the agent has reasonable suspicion the vehicle is either carrying illegal aliens or has crossed the border other than through a port of entry,” he said.

Someone’s ethnicity may be considered among reasons for such a stop but cannot be the only reason, Kelly said. Agents can stop motorists and question them about “citizenship, destination, where you’re coming from.”

Contrary to what some border-rights lawyers say, people must answer such queries, he said.

Quintero, however, says the only proper question is whether someone is here legally. If so, then the other questions become invasive and often discriminatory, he said.

“You can be polite and say, ‘I respectfully decline to answer,’ or you can be blunt and say, ‘It’s none of your business,’ ” Quintero said.

“I have my own experiences as a Hispanic who lives along the border and sees the Border Patrol presence increasing dramatically,” Quintero said. “There are more and more frequent impromptu Border Patrol checkpoints on all kinds of roads in southern New Mexico.”

To Quintero, the stops seem aimed at Hispanics.

“They claim there are other factors, but I think these other factors are concocted. They say a truck is riding low, but if you look at the truck, there’s nothing low about it. Or they’ll see a Hispanic without state plates. Well, Arizona plates are common here. Or a non-factory bumper. Non-factory bumpers in cowboy country are just as routine as cows,” he said.

Many Hispanics believe they are treated as second-class citizens, he said. “If I’m traveling in the Southwest and I happen to be blond and blue-eyed, the odds of being stopped are slim and none. But if I’m Hispanic driving a dilapidated car or a car that looks too expensive, I’m stopped,” he said.

The factors that government authorities can use to stop people should be tightened, Quintero said.

Jennie Lusk, executive director of the ACLU in New Mexico, said her group would participate in efforts to establish civilian oversight of the Border Patrol.

Asked if the ACLU wants laws changed or just scrupulously enforced, she said: “I don’t think we would have a problem going with scrupulous enforcement.”

Border Patrol spokesman Doug Mosier rejected charges of racism, and said he would not object to scrupulous enforcement, either.