Internal checkpoints annoy Vermonters

[Pat McCotter]

From ACLU-VT:
=============================
"Traffic checkpoints" -- as distinguised from "line watches" on
borders -- have been used by the INS since 1927.

For authority to operate checkpoints up to within 100 miles of the
border, see the 1976 U.S. Supreme Court case, "U.S. v. Martinez-Fuerte."
=============================

UNITED STATES v. MARTINEZ-FUERTE, 428 U.S. 543 (1976)

[error]

I don't want to get into the Supreme Court's tortured misreading and abuse of the Constitution right now. But I do want to draw attention to one thing:

We noted last Term that "[e]stimates of the number of illegal immigrants [already] in the United States vary widely. A conservative estimate in 1972 produced a figure of about one million, but the Immigration and Naturalization Service now suggests there may be as many as 10 or 12 million aliens illegally in the country."

That was in 1975.

30 years later, the best available estimates are STILL 10 to 12 million illegal aliens in the country.

So if there are illegal aliens coming IN, there must also be illegal aliens LEAVING.

Something to ponder...why would anyone want to leave the United States of America?

[Vote Tyler Stearns]

They have a border patrol road block in the southbound lane of I-93 around Exit 31 (between Lincoln and Thornton) every year during motorcycle week (around father's day).  I've been stopped and they ask questions like "Are you a U.S. citizen," "where are you traveling to."  And they take the opportunity to peer into your car and look around.  I'm curious how many arrests/detainments they actually make from these?

[TEBON]

I don't want to get into the Supreme Court's tortured misreading and abuse of the Constitution right now. But I do want to draw attention to one thing:

We noted last Term that "[e]stimates of the number of illegal immigrants [already] in the United States vary widely. A conservative estimate in 1972 produced a figure of about one million, but the Immigration and Naturalization Service now suggests there may be as many as 10 or 12 million aliens illegally in the country."

That was in 1975.

30 years later, the best available estimates are STILL 10 to 12 million illegal aliens in the country.

So if there are illegal aliens coming IN, there must also be illegal aliens LEAVING.

Something to ponder...why would anyone want to leave the United States of America?

you could be right, they could be leaving. . . but ask those people in South Central LA, who KNOW there's more illegals here now than ever. . . since their formerly BLACK peice of the city, is now just another Hispanic hometown.

There are more illegals coming in (in the last 10 years) than all Irish and Italian legal immigrants in the history of the US.

[maineiac]

They have a border patrol road block in the southbound lane of I-93 around Exit 31 (between Lincoln and Thornton) every year during motorcycle week (around father's day).  I've been stopped and they ask questions like "Are you a U.S. citizen," "where are you traveling to."  And they take the opportunity to peer into your car and look around.  I'm curious how many arrests/detainments they actually make from these?

Dude,

Did they demand to see "your papers," or was it just those questions (which is bad enough anyway)?

[aries]

They do arrest people that have drugs or anything in the car, and if you challenge them they get a state cop to ask for license/registration

[KurtDaBear]

They have a border patrol road block in the southbound lane of I-93 around Exit 31 (between Lincoln and Thornton) every year during motorcycle week (around father's day).  I've been stopped and they ask questions like "Are you a U.S. citizen," "where are you traveling to."  And they take the opportunity to peer into your car and look around.  I'm curious how many arrests/detainments they actually make from these?

How far into NH would that checkpoint be, and did your vehicle have NH plates?

[aries]

They have a border patrol road block in the southbound lane of I-93 around Exit 31 (between Lincoln and Thornton) every year during motorcycle week (around father's day).  I've been stopped and they ask questions like "Are you a U.S. citizen," "where are you traveling to."  And they take the opportunity to peer into your car and look around.  I'm curious how many arrests/detainments they actually make from these?

How far into NH would that checkpoint be, and did your vehicle have NH plates?

about exactly 100 miles of highway between Lincoln NH and Stanstead Quebec

[Vote Tyler Stearns]

I have NH plates.  They stare at your plates as you approach the roadblock, then give you a more cursory look if you're from NH.  I've seen people pulled over and they usually have out of state plates.  I know the stupid roadblock is always there during motorcycle week, but I always forget to pull off the highway and take Rt. 3 to avoid it.

[Spencer]

When I was going to college in San Diego in the late 90's, the local LP did yearly "roadblocks."  They would pull over in a big van with a huge pro-freedom message on the side, "assume the position" (legs spread, hands against the side of the van), and generally make themselves very visible.

I wonder how they'd react to such a demonstration by undergrounders next motorcycle week?

Everyone could drive a Dada-esque car through the checkpoint (covered with signs, etc.).

[KurtDaBear]

I have NH plates.  They stare at your plates as you approach the roadblock, then give you a more cursory look if you're from NH.  I've seen people pulled over and they usually have out of state plates.  I know the stupid roadblock is always there during motorcycle week, but I always forget to pull off the highway and take Rt. 3 to avoid it.

It sounds like that have at least a small sense of the absurdity of their position.  Based on the pretext they're using, it would be difficult to justify stopping cars from NH scores of miles inside NH on grounds they've crossed an international border.  (They tend to just wave Calif. cars through their roadblocks here, and lately the state has been really lax on its "Agricultural Inspection" stations, too.)

[David]

Ohio does in state roadblocks.  Supposebly to check for insurance, alcohol, licence, ect. 
I've never gone through one, but I hear about one locally once or twice a year.  It probably happens more than that, I just don't hear about them.

[Russell Kanning]

oh ... they only check for your "papers" .... then ok.

[Lloyd Danforth]

We should carry 'stick on' Swasticas to hand them when they stop us.  "Here,......you might need this"

[maineiac]

We should carry 'stick on' Swastikas to hand them when they stop us.  "Here,......you might need this"

Brilliant!

+1!

Incidentally, I thought I would be spending the night in jail Saturday, as I came upon flashing blue lights in the road just over a small rise. I stopped, and a surprisingly pleasant female cop warned me of an accident and icy road conditions just over the next rise. I was quite surprised . . . not only that the cop was actually nice, but that I didn't panic in abject fear as I approached the roadlock and certain incarceration for DWL (fourth year).