It will be interesting to read the answer you get, especially the part about what agents may ask about.
Received this from “U.S. Customs & Border Protection” today.
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Recently you requested personal assistance from our on-line support center. Below is a summary of your request and our response.
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Subject:
With respect to the great job you guys are doing, however i do have a couple …
Discussion Thread:
Response (Christie) 08/19/2009 11:59 AM
The Border Patrol carefully selects checkpoint locations to maximize border enforcement while minimizing effects on legitimate traffic. The checkpoints have proven to be highly effective tools in halting the flow of illegal traffic into the United States. It is not unusual for Border Patrol Agents manning these checkpoints to engage in conversations with the public regarding their travels. Agents are trained to observe activities around them and would be particularly alert to vehicles that they have observed traveling south towards the border, who then shortly reappear traveling north. Vehicles noted under these circumstances may cause agents to have heightened concern that the vehicle may be transporting illegal items or aliens from across the border. Brief questions to dispel that concern are intended to resolve the issue with minimum disruption to lawful traffic.
We are in the process of updating our information on our website regarding the US Border Patrol and their Search Authority. Thank you for contacting CBP.
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Any thoughts? (There is still alot of meat on the bone left out in their response)
It would be interesting to hear from people from other countries with respect to their experiences with their checkpoints.
You gots to remember dems fellas only trying to do their job. Some of them are not too bright, just simple folk like me. Ain’t got much book learnin’ but know the land like the back of their hand. They got some keen instincts. Some got real nasty tempers, so it be best if you don’t cross ‘em, if you knows what I mean. Some are like the school bully who likes to push the scrawny ones around. Just be all nice and polite and they’ll let you go. They can ruin your day if you gives dem da chance so best to have your Sunday school manners. I ain’t sayin’ it’s right, I’m a just sayin’ it’s so.
Well, that was one way of saying absolutely nothing, which is what we expected right?
In Sweden we can at least cross our borders still without being harassed. Then again, Mexico isn’t to the south of us…
With best Sunday school manners i hope to say the following.
LittleJohn, I see this as an erosion of our rights by abandonment. That is to say that if nobody objects then it becomes standard practice or SOP over time with no way to reverse.
Yes, i did expect the answer they gave. Some of the questions posed were way beyond the level of an ordinary customer service center help desk.
Thanks MacGyver.
Well now the ways I sees it, if they get too big for their britches, we’ll just have to explain to them why there’s the SECOND AMENDMENT, if you all knows what I mean. We got a saying in these parts that goes like dis: gun control is hitting what you is aiming at. We got real good gun control down here on the farm. We might be a bunch a dumb country hicks, but we ain’t stupid, if you all knows what I mean.
littlejohn, Wayne LaPierre & the NRA is the “Standard Bearer” for 2nd amendment rights in the U.S… He has done a fine job, and continues to do so.
To that end, the way that he continues to do this for the American public is exactly what we need, and nothing more, except maybe a greater voice in congress.
I do not know what you mean, when you state, “If you all knows what i mean”. The threat of violence and insurrection is ignorance at its best for a democratic society.
My intent when starting this thread was to open up a discussion of “Border Patrol Checkpoints” that are all across the world. As such, i cannot in good faith or conscience support violent actions in any form where it is not warranted.
Well, I guess that because of the “freedom” bestowed on the American nation, this allow for much illegal activity, hence the “Free Sate” has to act more like a Police State in order to maintain/protect this freedom.
I remember crossing from Georgia into Florida (this was at the end of the 80’s) and we all were stopped for a border check by the police. We were told it was a “control” for people coming into the state, they wanted to make sure that no one was bringing plants etc into the state, they said it was to protect the citrus groves from infected plants. True? I don’t know but I supposed that this sounds pretty acceptable considering that fruit is the 3rd largest income to the Sunshine State behind cattle (!) and tourism.
Bottom line is that whether you live in a free country or not the power that be has every right to stop you for no reason…even if they don’t have the right, if you see what I mean.
isnt what they are doing good? to protect the US?
I watched Glenn Beck last night. He is telling us that we must choose. My question is:
[B]How shall one decide when enough is enough and take up arms against the government?[/B]
All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.
Thomas Jefferson
Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state.
Thomas Jefferson
Every generation needs a new revolution.
Thomas Jefferson
Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.
Thomas Jefferson
For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well-organized and armed militia is their best security.
Thomas Jefferson
I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
Thomas Jefferson
I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.
Thomas Jefferson
If the present Congress errs in too much talking, how can it be otherwise in a body to which the people send one hundred and fifty lawyers, whose trade it is to question everything, yield nothing, and talk by the hour?
Thomas Jefferson
It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.
Thomas Jefferson
My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.
Thomas Jefferson
No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.
Thomas Jefferson
The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
Thomas Jefferson
The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.
Thomas Jefferson
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Thomas Jefferson
When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.
Thomas Jefferson
Firearms are second only to the Constitution in importance; they are the peoples’ liberty’s teeth.
George Washington
Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.
Benjamin Franklin
They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security.
Benjamin Franklin
There is a certain enthusiasm in liberty, that makes human nature rise above itself, in acts of bravery and heroism.
Alexander Hamilton
Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.
Alexander Hamilton
When the agents of the government wear blue helmets
and claim that the World Government is now running the United States of America.
Don’t you think that would be a little bit late?
Too late to start stockpiling weapons and ammunition, for sure.
Not too late to start shooting.
Watched Glen Beck last night. Sounds like the global warming treaty might just allow the blue helmets to land.
IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America
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[I]When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.[/I]
[B][I][U]That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends,[/U] [U]it is the Right of the People[/U] to alter or to abolish it, and [U]to institute new Government[/U], laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.[/I][/B]
The states may be united but the people are not. Divide and conquer.