Incidents at Border Patrol checkpoints spur complaints

Jennifer Weaver was surprised late last month when the Border Patrol agent at the checkpoint on U.S. 67 south of Marfa, Texas, told her that his dog had "alerted" on her pickup truck.

"I knew there was nothing in my truck of interest to anyone," said Weaver, a schoolteacher.

She pulled over. She answered the agent's questions. But when she replied that, yes, she had weapons — two pistols in her glove compartment, for which she had a concealed-handgun license in her purse — the stop turned ugly, she said.

Agents ordered her out of her truck. They forced her to the ground. They held her for an hour, running gun checks and repeatedly searching her vehicle, before telling her she was free to leave, she said.

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Two weeks later, it happened again. This time, Weaver said in an account disputed by the Border Patrol, an agent threatened to shoot her if she moved as they pulled her out of her truck.

What happened next to Weaver would not be an isolated incident.

Complaints about checkpoints

The Border Patrol operates scores of permanent and temporary checkpoints on major roads and highways up to 100 miles from the southern and northern U.S. borders. Ostensibly, these checkpoints are meant primarily to check the immigration status of those who pass through them.

But critics, including the American Civil Liberties Union, charge that the checkpoints have become an invasive catch-all for general law enforcement, and that they subject residents who pass through them to harassment and unconstitutional search and seizure.

Even Customs and Border Protection leaders have raised questions about the checkpoints.

CBP Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske, in an interview this week with The Arizona Republic, defended the checkpoints as valuable, though he said he, too, has had questions about them.

Checkpoint encounters can be deadly: On several occasions, agents have been shot at or driven at. And three people have been killed after running through Border Patrol interior checkpoints in the past three years.

In the most recent incident, Jan. 22, Border Patrol agents shot to death a man the FBI identified as Tiano Meton, 25, after he allegedly failed to stop at a checkpoint on Interstate 10 near Sierra Blanca, Texas.

Meton, whose nationality has not been released, drove 30 miles past the checkpoint before stopping, according to a CBP news release.

One of four agents approaching the vehicle yelled "gun!" and two agents opened fire. They recovered a pellet pistol, the agency said.

The FBI's El Paso office said its investigation continues.

At many major checkpoints, such as one operating on Interstate 19 between Nogales and Tucson, agents regularly seize large quantities of drugs. But in at least five border counties in Texas and Arizona, county prosecutors have declined in recent years to prosecute the flood of minor violations Border Patrol agents turn up at checkpoints.

For its part, the Border Patrol only started systematically collecting and analyzing checkpoint-specific data this fiscal year and has not released such data to the public.

The ACLU has filed complaints about the checkpoints with the Border Patrol's parent agency, CBP, and with the Department of Homeland Security; it is one of several organizations and individuals suing CBP over ­alleged rights violations at various checkpoints.

The checkpoints have spawned a YouTube category of people who post videos of themselves refusing to answer agents' questions.

CBP's Kerlikowske, in his interview with The Republic, said he understands the concerns people are raising.

"When I took this job in March" of last year, he said, "I did not know much about checkpoints. And frankly, I'll tell you, I was a little curious as to, OK, how far away from the border are they? And why are they there? And are we really getting much benefit from them? And I heard complaints. … I have looked at this, and I am continuing to look at this much more in depth."

But Kerlikowske also said he doesn't see any need to change how the checkpoints operate.

"We have not done a particularly good job at the checkpoints in several places. One is explaining to people … that these are valuable, these can be quite helpful. We rescue people at these checkpoints. We seize drugs at these checkpoints, and we make arrests of people who are wanted on warrants."

In a 1976 ruling, U.S. vs. Martinez-Fuentes, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Border Patrol's authority to operate checkpoints away from the border to verify residency status. But the court said questions at interior checkpoints must be brief, minimally intrusive and focused on immigration status. Any "further detention ... must be based on consent or probable cause."

In practice, however, probable cause can be a fuzzy standard, said James Duff Lyall, an ACLU attorney in Tucson who is representing residents of Arivaca who allege harassment by Border Patrol agents at a checkpoint outside that community, south of Tucson, and who say their complaints have gotten little or no response.

"I get checkpoint- ­related complaints on a regular basis," Lyall said. But, he added, "as long as they say their primary purpose is immigration-related, it's hard to challenge — even if it is mostly about drugs."

Kerlikowske all but acknowledged as much in his interview.

He was asked whether the scope of the checkpoints has broadened far beyond what the court envisioned in the Martinez-Fuentes case.

"There are a number of cases that have been filed regarding the checkpoints, and I think it depends on where these cases go and at what level within the court system they'll actually be settled," he said.

"But things are very different, too, in many ways," than in 1976, he added, reiterating that the checkpoints "are very helpful."

The use of interior checkpoints expanded dramatically after 9/11.

The Border Patrol acknowledges operating 35 "permanent" checkpoints but declines to specify how many "tactical," nominally temporary checkpoints it runs.

Agency documents obtained by The Republic through Freedom of Information Act requests indicate a capacity to operate up to 200 checkpoints.

Feeling targeted

Weaver, the teacher, who has to use a walker because of severe injuries from a car accident, said the second time she was stopped by the Border Patrol, she was on her way to visit her dog at an animal hospital, where it was ­being treated after a run-in with a porcupine.

She said she tried to explain to the agents who ordered her out that she couldn't stand or walk without her walker, which was in the bed of her truck. After being wrestled out of the car, searched and held again, she said the agents told her their dog had "alerted" to a bottle of prescription painkillers.

When she complained to the agent in charge of the Marfa Border Patrol station, she says she was told that if she carries her prescription medication with her, she can expect to be searched again.

Bill Brooks, spokesman for the Border ­Patrol's Big Bend (Texas) Sector, responded, "We're satisfied that our agents operated properly. They were courteous to her; they provided her with the information she needed to file a complaint. There wasn't anything done by our agents that was out of line."

Weaver said she feels targeted for carrying a gun and for filing a complaint. "I've never been arrested in my life," she said. "I filed a complaint, but they don't promise any remedy. I feel they just treat everybody like a criminal."