Stopped and questioned by the Border Patrol 7 times on a trip from San Diego to Phoenix and back

[slackmaster]

Three times on the way out, four on the way back.

It's completely out of hand. If the checkpoints are stopping any smugglers or people in the country unlawfully, it has to be only the dumbest of the dumb.

I can't see how the phony border enforcement efforts are worth the lives of 5,000 desperate people who have died in the desert in 10 years.

My attitude on this has changed a little as a result of my experience this week. I already knew it was stupid, now I see it as a make-work program for wannabe brown-shirts.

[ellie]

1. My husband and I were

stopped when we were down in New Mexico. We must fit a profile or something?

[anigbrowl]

2. To some extent, it's busy-work

It got little publicity, but a few weeks ago a border patrol agent was arrested and charged with being in the pay of Mexican drug gangs, and it's turns out she's not the only person. They're coming under heavy scrutiny lately so they're trying to look extra efficient - unfortunately, at the expense of people simply going about their business.

Check it out:
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/world/s_671257.html

[lonestarnot]

3. Sheriff Joe's kids?

[slackmaster]

5. No, federal immigration officers

Secretary Janet Napolitano's kids.

[lonestarnot]

8. She's here for a visit today.

She and Holder both.

[alstephenson]

4. Thanks for the heads up. I was wondering if they were still using the checkpoints as "weed traps".

I guess I won't be visiting San Diego this summer. The City of Yuma makes a ton of money from these stops. Pure harassment.

http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2008-03-13/news/border-patrol-checkpoints-near-yuma-nab-hordes-of-pot-users-headed-back-from-the-beach

[slackmaster]

6. Gone are the days when you can drink a six-pack of beer on the way to Gila Bend

And not get in deep shit.

Don't worry too much. There's plenty of weed in San Diego, or so I've been told.

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

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[Berry Cool]

9. It's just as bad on the northern border.

Try boarding or getting off a bus in Rochester, New York, and see what I mean. Before you can get on or off a Greyhound in that town, the customs agents are all over you, asking you what your citizenship is. They run dogs through the baggage hold every time a bus comes into or leaves the station.

It's like you can't travel freely within the borders of your own country without being expected to produce papers. Normally they will take you at your word, but I am sure other people get questioned more seriously than I have based on nothing more than profiling, and actually have to produce proof.