Freedom Lawyers of America

TRAFFIC CHECKS: Random stops begin today in Michigan

November 12, 2002
BY TAMARA AUDI
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Federal agents will begin randomly stopping traffic today, looking for
illegal immigrants, terrorists and drug or weapon smugglers.

Cars will be stopped at unannounced, rotating checkpoints within Michigan,
including metro Detroit. U.S. Border Patrol agents at the checkpoints will
ask passengers their citizenship and will have leeway to ask a host of
follow-up questions.

The effort is part of President George W. Bush's attempt to increase
security along the northern border, said Immigration and Naturalization
spokeswoman Karen Kraushaar.

According to an obscure but long-standing federal law, the government can
conduct searches and surveillance within 25 miles of any international border.

The practice of internal checkpoints is common in Texas and California,
states along the southwest border.

Michigan is among the first of the northern border states to be included in
the program.

Though agents will focus on finding undocumented immigrants, the
checkpoints on the southern border have helped net drugs and weapons,
patrol agents and officials said.

"Those checkpoints would yield quite a few arrests," said Robert Lindemann,
vice president of Michigan's border patrol union and a patrol agent in
Detroit. Lindemann used to work checkpoints near the southern border. "We
got drugs, we got aliens, we got convicts. The checkpoints on the southwest
border are critical."

In Michigan, federal officials hope the checkpoints will also help them
catch terrorists.

"The terrorism component cannot be ignored in addressing border security,"
Kraushaar said.

Lindemann and other agents said it's too soon to tell how successful the
checkpoints will be. One feature that is bound to carry over from the
southern border is traffic, they said. Checkpoints cause back-ups.

Federal officials would not say Monday how many checkpoints there will be,
or how often Michigan drivers can expect to be stopped. More details on the
program are to be released at a news conference in Kimball Township today.

Meanwhile, civil liberty groups raised concerns.

"We believe it's going to be very hard for them to do this without
violating people's civil rights, or profiling people based on their
ethnicity or accent," said Kary Moss, executive director of the American
Civil Liberties Union in Michigan.

U.S. citizens are not required to carry proof of identification with them
while traveling in the country. Alien residents are required to carry some
paperwork.