ACLU: Wide swaths of the country designated as constitution free zones

United States Code 135 states that border patrol agents have the authority to perform warrantless searches within a reasonable distance of U.S. maritime and land borders. According to the ACLU, “reasonable” has been interpreted as within 100 miles, a decision that does not sit well with the civil liberties group.

“Courtesy of the Department of Homeland Security, we are seeing wide swaths of the country designated as constitution free zones, where even American citizens are denied their basic constitutional rights,” said Caroline Fredrickson, director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office during a press conference at the National Press Club.

Fredricksen said that the ACLU was able to use data from the U.S. Census Bureau to estimate that there are 197.4 million people who live within a hundred miles of maritime or coastal borders, which would mean that two-thirds of the U.S. population are exposed to the possibility of being searched without probable cause according to the ACLU.

“This is a classic case of law enforcement powers expanding far beyond their proper boundaries and in this case, we mean that literally,” said Fredrickson.

To show the effects of the Border Patrol’s interpretation, a video was shown of Vince Peppard, a San Diego man who was stopped by Border Patrol agents 15 miles within the U.S. when returning from buying tile in Mexico.

“When I came back from Mexico, they didn’t open my trunk then. But then a half hour later in the United States they were opening my trunk and ransacking my car. I didn’t feel like I was in the United States,” said Peppard.

DHS review will be hard but not impossible

The Subcommittee on Management, Investigations and Oversight held a hearing on “The Quadrennial Homeland Security Review,” where they discussed the challenges facing the Department of Homeland Security in doing this review. While the challenges are many and the time short, witnesses assured Congress that the task will be hard but not impossible.

A subsection of the Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commissions Act of 2007, requires the secretary of the DHS to review the national security of the country every four years. The DHS’ review is due at the end of the year in 2009. The report will set the agenda and define priorities for DHS through 2012, said Christine Wormuth, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The report will not only look at organizational issues, but also issues of strategy, policy, process, program and budget.

The main challenges the DHS faces are the timing of the review right between Administrations, its scope, resources for the review and the need to coordinate with a wide array of stakeholders, Wormuth said. The report will need to be worked on while there are still very few political appointees in place in DHS to run the process. It will be difficult to conduct a truly strategic review with a relatively small number of senior leaders facing a compressed review timetable, she said.

TSA needs to do a lot of work to ensure cargo safety

John Sammon, assistant administrator for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, spoke today about the TSA’s actions toward fulfilling the air cargo security provisions of the Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007. The act mandates that 100 percent of all air cargo aboard passenger aircraft be screened by the year 2010.

The major challenges faced by the TSA is that there is not enough capacity at all the airports to do all the screening that needs to be done, Sammon said. The lack of capacity makes it impractical to attempt to break down, screen and reassemble large consolidated loads on airport property with any timelines or efficiency and it also poses a security threat, he said.

Cathleen Berrick, director of the Homeland Security and Justice Issues at the U.S. Government Accountability Office, said that TSA faces five major challenges: TSA has noted some technologies that will be allowed but has not finished that assessment, TSA has not finished it’s air cargo vulnerability assessments, TSA may face resource challenges, TSA is working with outbound and domestic air cargo but more work is needed on inbound international flights, and finally TSA needs to set standards that all air cargo companies are willing to work with.