DHS Ignored FOIA Requests, Faces Lawsuit

The American Police State

• The Border Patrol refuses to release information on unconstitutional checkpoints and roving patrols.

Two law professors are suing the Department of Homeland Security after U.S. Customs and Border Protection ignored repeated Freedom of Information Act Requests to provide documentation on unconstitutional Border Patrol checkpoints.

Derek and Jane Bambauer, who are professors at James E. Rogers College of Law, are being represented by the ACLU after the U.S. Customs and Border Protection refused to turn over information relating to its increasingly notorious checkpoints and “roving patrols” that have ensnared innocent Americans as much as 100 miles inland from the border reports Paul Joseph Watson of Infowars News.

 

The two professors are attempting to confirm the charge that the Border Patrol is routinely violating the law by instead following its own internal rules, leading to Fourth Amendment-busting drugs searches performed on the flimsiest of pretexts.

 

After Border Patrol failed to respond to the initial FOIA request after 20 days, an appeal was filed but the federal agency again completely ignored the matter, forcing the professors to file a lawsuit.

 

Constitution Free Zone
The Department of Homeland Security now considers any area
within a 100 mile radius of the entire US border to be what
the ACLU has described as a “constitution free zone,” where
Fourth amendment legal protection from unconstitutional searches
and seizures does not apply.

 

“We feel that their decision to not respond is just an example of their noncompliance,” Jane Bambauer told the Daily Wildcat, while Derek Bambauer noted that the Border Patrol is a federal agency that has, “both been increasing in power and decreasing in transparency.”

 

Last year we reported on numerous examples of American citizens who had been sexually molested by Border Patrol agents, including a woman who had her vagina and anus violated without consent and without a warrant.

We also covered the harrowing case of David Eckert, an innocent New Mexico man who was forced to endure 14 hours of enforced anal probing at the hands of doctors, on the orders of cops looking for narcotics, and was then billed by the medical center. Eckert was singled out after police claimed he “appeared to be clenching his buttocks” while stepping out of his vehicle at a traffic stop.

 

Eckert was subjected to manual probing of his anus, an enema, x-rays, as well as a colonoscopy – all against his will – by doctors on orders of New Mexico police. No drugs were found.

 

Two days later, a similar story emerged involving a man named Timothy Young, who was pulled over by New Mexico police in October for not using his blinker. Young was singled out by a drug sniffing dog and subsequently subjected to anal exams and x-rays of his stomach, without giving his consent.

 

Last month, another story emerged about a mother and her two young children who were terrorized by Border Patrol agents who threatened to taser her if she did not consent to a search of her vehicle before slashing her tires.

 

The Department of Homeland Security now considers any area within a 100 mile radius of the entire US border to be what the ACLU has described as a “constitution free zone,” where Fourth amendment legal protection from unconstitutional searches and seizures does not apply.

Constitution Free Zones in The U. S.

Illegal Police State Checkpoints
Border Patrol agent Alex Pulliza waves through northbound traffic on Interstate 19. Arizona uses random Border Patrol checkpoints far from the Mexican border, deep into the U.S.
.
The “temporary” checkpoint has been in place since 2007.  (Tucson Citizen)