{"id":16725,"date":"2018-03-23T14:36:07","date_gmt":"2018-03-23T18:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/live-immigrationreform.pantheonsite.io\/?p=16725"},"modified":"2018-12-28T10:42:41","modified_gmt":"2018-12-28T15:42:41","slug":"aclu-making-goes-along","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2018\/03\/23\/aclu-making-goes-along\/","title":{"rendered":"The ACLU, Making it Up as it Goes Along"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Desert Sun<\/em>, a California affiliate of the USA Today Network<\/em> recently ran a story titled \u201cBorder Patrol Stopped an Undocumented Man at the Indio Greyhound Station Because His \u2018Shoes Looked Suspicious<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 That title was clearly intended to imply that the illegal alien in question was subjected to some kind of civil rights violation.<\/p>\n

And the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) dutifully accused the Border Patrol of producing a \u201chalf-concocted, after-the-fact rationalization for stopping someone because he\u2019s of Latino ethnicity.\u201d It also stated that Greyhound Bus Lines could lawfully refuse to cooperate with the Border Patrol. However, when one takes a closer look at what actually happened the ACLU\u2019s narrative falls apart.<\/p>\n

8 U.S.C. \u00a7 1357(a)(2)<\/a> specifically authorizes immigration officers to \u201carrest any alien in the United States, if [the officer]has reason to believe that the alien so arrested is in the United States in violation of any such law or regulation and is likely to escape before a warrant can be obtained for his arrest.\u201d An immigration violator attempting to board a bus is likely to escape before officers can apply for a warrant.<\/p>\n

And, whether the ACLU finds it persuasive or not, illegal aliens are often identified by their clothing or the presence of desert sand and plant debris on their shoes.\u00a0 In fact, the Supreme Court<\/a> has opined \u2013 in a case dealing with illegal aliens and shoe-print evidence \u2013 that, \u201cwhen used by trained law enforcement officers, objective facts, meaningless to the untrained, can be combined with permissible deductions\u201d and may \u201cform a legitimate basis for suspicion of a particular person and for action on that suspicion.\u201d<\/p>\n

So much for the accusations of racism. It looks more like the Border Patrol was just following the applicable law. The ACLU just doesn\u2019t happen to like those laws. And as the title of the article notes, the suspect individual really was<\/em> an illegal alien. He\u2019s, apparently, still in Border Patrol custody, awaiting removal from the United States.<\/p>\n

The implication that Greyhound is complicit in some type of institutional racism holds up just about as well. 8 U.S.C. \u00a7 1357(a)(3)<\/a> specifically permits immigration officers to, without warrant, board and search any railway car, conveyance or vehicle, to look for illegal aliens, within a reasonable distance of any external border of the United States. Current Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security regulations define a reasonable distance from the border to be 100 air miles.<\/p>\n

Indio, California, is approximately 86 miles from the border with Mexico \u2013 so it\u2019s well within the so-called \u201cborder zone.\u201d And Greyhound has no legitimate basis for refusing to comply with the relevant federal law.<\/p>\n

So much for the ACLU\u2019s professed desire to preserve Greyhound\u2019s corporate constitutional rights. In actuality, it sounds more like the ACLU is just trying to bully the company into becoming complicit in the unlawful transport of illegal aliens into the interior.<\/p>\n

The ACLU claims that it \u201cworks tirelessly in courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the Constitution\u2019s promise of liberty for everyone in our country.\u201d Apparently it plans to do so by deliberately misstating the law, harassing law-abiding companies and levying unsupported allegations of racism against hard-working Border Patrol agents.<\/p>\n

It makes you wonder. While the ACLU is protecting illegal aliens from imaginary violations allegedly committed by the Border Patrol, who\u2019s protecting us from the ACLU?