CONSTITUTION-FREE ZONES. NO RIGHTS FOR 100 MILES

Our "BORDER" is defined by "the area within 100 miles of America's borders with other nations and the seas on both coasts"...yeah, big area !!!  

THE CONSTITUTION DOES NOT APPLY THERE...WE ARE WIDE OPEN TO "LEGAL Search & Seizure"

§ 287 (a) (3) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 66 Stat. 233, 8 U.S.C. § 1357(a)(3), which simply provides for warrant-less searches of automobiles and other conveyances "within a reasonable distance from any external boundary of the United States," as authorized by regulations to be promulgated by the Attorney General. 

The Attorney General's regulation, 8 CFR § 287.1, defines "reasonable distance" as "within 100 air miles from any external boundary of the United States."

SCARY AS ALL GET-OUT,YES?

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/8/1357

The Immigration and Nationality Act, or INA, was created in 1952. 
IT HAS BEEN "REVISED" COUNTLESS TIMES...THE PATRIOT ACT, THE NDAA BOTH USE IT TO THE MAX!

When Homeland Security officers check on a person, within their boundaries on United States soil, they can ask travelers for papers, detain them, question them, bring in drug dogs to search vehicles, etc.
They are NOT required to have probable cause.

The question to ask is: does this loophole create/ or should it create concern for Americans regarding their Constitutional rights?

“Border patrol officials say that checkpoints are anything but unconstitutional. ‘The 100-mile zone absolutely is not a Constitution-free zone,’ said Jason Ciliberti, a supervisory border patrol agent with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. ‘Those 100 miles are what essentially is said to be a reasonable distance from the boundary from the United States, and the Supreme Court has come down firmly on our side and said that what we’re doing is not unreasonable.’”

 Indeed it has! 

"'Despite federal law allowing certain federal agents to conduct suspicionless search and seizures within 100 miles of the border,the Supreme Court has clearly and repeatedly confirmed that the border search exception applies only at international borders and their functional equivalent (such as international airports).

 “Does our Constitution really matter?” When considering “Constitutional Free Zones” we have to ask if this is an example of where the lines regarding our constitutional rights are eroding.

The “Constitution Free Zone,” is the area within “100-miles of the US land and coastal borders.”
ALL U.S. airports are also in these zones, regardless of their geographic location.

According to 2007 figures from the US Census Bureau, 197.4 million people, 2/3 of the United States population, including the entire state of Florida, live within “Constitution Free Zones.”

The Department of Homeland Security has the authority to stop, search and detain anyone, for any reason within a “Constitution Free Zone,” whether resident or traveler.

The Controversy Over the “Constitution Free Zone”

In theory, having a 100-mile radius within which to apprehend criminals, international drug lords, terrorists and others with ill intentions may not be a bad idea.

However, problems frequently occur.
Numerous case studies show that American citizens have been harassed and that the FBI has used Homeland Security to bypass normal search & seizure guidelines as outlined in the Constitution’s 4th Amendment.
 The Fourth Amendment guarantees the right of Americans to be "secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects’ from unreasonable and unwarranted government intrusion.”

CONSTITUTION DOES NOT APPLY IN NEW YORK, LOS ANGELES, MIAMI, DETROIT, CHICAGO, HOUSTON, NEW ORLEANS, SAN FRANCISCO, PORTLAND, SEATTLE, PHOENIX, SAN DIEGO ! Nine of the top 10 largest metropolitan areas as determined by the 2000 census, fall within the Constitution-free Zone. The only exception is #9, Dallas-Fort Worth.

Some ENTIRE states are considered to lie completely within the zone: Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont.

• Normally under the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the American people are not generally subject to random and arbitrary stops and searches. 
• The border, however, has always been an exception.  There, the longstanding view is that the normal rules do not apply.  For example the authorities do not need a warrant or probable cause to conduct a “routine search.” 
• But what is “the border”?  According to the government, it  is a 100-mile wide strip that wraps around the “external boundary” of the United States. 
• As a result of this claimed authority, individuals who are far away from the border, American citizens traveling from one place in America to another, are being stopped and harassed in ways that our Constitution does not permit.
• Border Patrol has been setting up checkpoints inland — on highways in states such as California, Texas and Arizona, and at ferry terminals in Washington State. Typically, the agents ask drivers and passengers about their citizenship.  Unfortunately, our courts so far have permitted these kinds of checkpoints – legally speaking, they are “administrative” stops that are permitted only for the specific purpose of protecting the nation’s borders.  They cannot become general drug-search or other law enforcement efforts. 
• However, these stops by Border Patrol agents are not remaining confined to that border security purpose.  On the roads of California and elsewhere in the nation – places far removed from the actual border – agents are stopping, interrogating, and searching Americans on an everyday basis with absolutely no suspicion of wrongdoing.
• The bottom line is that the extraordinary authorities that the government possesses at the border are spilling into regular American streets. 

WHO KNEW???

I MEAN, THIS CAME INTO EXISTENCE IN 1952, & HAS HAD A VAST NUMBER OF REVISIONS SINCE THEN...

"WHILE AMERICA SLEPT"....Well, like a couple of comedians have said,
"Afghanistan/Iraq can have OUR Constitution....we sure as hell aren't using it!"