Exclusive: Kirsten Gillibrand introduces a bill to crack down on immigration agents

[babylonsister]

Exclusive: Kirsten Gillibrand introduces a bill to crack down on immigration agents
Agents would need to report every instance they stop and question someone about their citizenship status.
By Alexia Fernández Campbell@[e-mail] May 11, 2018, 9:10am EDT


New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D) introduced a bill Thursday to place more scrutiny on Border Patrol agents when they stop and question passengers on buses and trains.

The Department of Homeland Security Accountability and Transparency Act would require border patrol and immigration enforcement agents to document every instance when they stop, search, or interrogate people. The bill is co-sponsored by Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Tom Udall (D-NM). The law applies to all stops by agents who work for US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Under current law, agents from both departments have broad authority to stop and question people about their immigration status. In the 100-mile border zone — the area of the US that’s within 100 miles of a land or water border — agents can pull over cars and board vehicles to ask passengers about their citizenship if they suspect a person is not in the country legally. (In the rest of the country, ICE agents can’t enter private property without a warrant or pull over vehicles without probable cause of an immigration violation.) But the law doesn’t require agents keep track of whom they stop or why, unless the agents detain someone or end up using force.

The practice of stopping people and asking them their citizenship status happens all over the border zone — in immigrant neighborhoods, on Greyhound buses or Amtrak trains, outside grocery stores.

In recent months, videos of Border Patrol agents boarding buses in New York and Florida have gone viral on social media, alarming civil rights groups and raising questions about the potential violation of a person’s constitutional rights.

Agents have vast powers to question people about their citizenship status, but there are some limits to that power. It’s illegal for agents to stop someone solely because of their race, or for no reason whatsoever. But because CBP and ICE do not keep track of their stops and searches, oversight can be a challenge.

more...

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/5/11/17340502/kirsten-gillibrand-immigration-border-stop-bill

[marble falls]

1. Good common sense start.