Newly Released FOIA Documents Shed Light on Border Patrol’s Seemingly Limitless Authority

http://theintercept.com/2019/01/07/cbp-border-patrol-enforcement-law-course/
Date Written:  2019-01-07
Publisher:  The Intercept
Year Published:  2019
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX23219

More than 1,000 pages of previously unseen Customs and Border Protection training documents, shed light on the details of the Amercian Border Patrol’s seemingly limitless authority.

Abstract: 
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Excerpts:

The Border Patrol's authority doesn’t only apply to remote stretches of the border. Agents also deploy in cities, searching for people they believe to have illegally entered the country; board buses and ask passengers to prove they are in the country legally; and conscript civilians to assist them with law enforcement activities under threat of arrest.

These details and others were revealed in more than 1,000 pages of previously unseen Customs and Border Protection training documents, which were obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union after a four-year legal battle and shared exclusively with The Intercept. The documents were finally released to the ACLU’s Border Litigation Project this past August in response to a 2014 Freedom of Information Act request that focused on the policies of Border Patrol’s "roving patrols" — units that operate outside of ports of entry and checkpoints, often venturing far into the country’s interior. These roving patrols can question, detain, and arrest individuals they suspect of having illegally crossed the border or having smuggled drugs or other contraband into the country.