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Americans continue to lose their Constitutional rights in the name of “security” at a rapid pace. The Second Amendment has been the most obvious, but the First, Fifth and Tenth Amendment are being usurped by the U.S. government in a disturbing trend.
The Fourth Amendment is the most recent in this series. Increasing surveillance – such as New York’s proposal to monitor the streets by camera and save the data, Bloomberg’s “stop and frisk,” the NSA’s snooping programs, and PRISM revelations – has drawn this accusation, and now the Department of Homeland Security has become involved.
In the name of “border security,” a recent report defended the idea of so-called “Fourth Amendment Free Zones” within 100 miles of every border and the ocean.
In these areas, DHS agents can search and examine electronic devices, search through peoples’ belongings, and shake them down, all without probable cause. This effectively suspends the rights of 197 million Americans based on residence alone. This was questioned in 2009, and the DHS agreed to investigate the “civil rights impact” of the practice, but the full report wasn’t released until nearly four years later.
In February 2013, the DHS released an executive summary by its civil rights watchdog concluding that “imposing a requirement that officers have reasonable suspicion in order to conduct a border search of an electronic device would be operationally harmful without concomitant civil rights/civil liberties benefits.” In other words “it’s easier this way.” According to the report, there were 685 electronic device searches from 2009-2010, with a total of 41 seizures. All in all, about 6,500 travelers (2,995 of whom were citizens) have been searched since 2008.
Originally posted by yourmaker
Is that for real? I don't understand.
I literally live 10 minutes from the Washington State border.
What the hell is a Constitutionally free zone?edit on 17-8-2013 by yourmaker because: (no reason given)
That's more space and population covered than most nations have in their entire land area.
Carreau
reply to post by tothetenthpower
You forgot something. Technically any airport that receives an international flight will meet the definition of an international border. So now you need a 100 mile radius for each and every airport that has any flights arriving from outside the US.