Secrecy and abuse at the US border


I have written many times before (see here and here and here for just a few instances) about the way that people are harassed and abused at the US border by the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) services when they try to enter.

The radio program On the Media devoted its entire show (51 minutes) this week to document the various ways it does this, starting with what happened to one if its own producers (22 minutes) that I wrote about a few months ago.

Another episode they recounted was a horrific invasive cavity search of a 54-year old American woman that left her traumatized. (6 minutes)

The last segment (9 minutes) looked at why the CBP border agents can get away with such outrageous behavior. The reason is simple. They are allowed to act with little or no oversight or with the collusion of their superiors and by their parent organization the Department of Homeland Services . Their actions are protected by secrecy so that no one knows what the rules are and can never get any information from them. And they have the power of the state at their backs. The combination of power, secrecy, and lack of oversight is guaranteed to produce abuses.

The other two segments deal with the search and seizure of personal belongings and the use of force.

Comments

  1. countryboy says

    There are times when I read about the criminal conduct committed by US Govt pondscum that make me want to cross into Canada and throw my passport back to the US side and never come back.

  2. says

    Customs and immigration have always lived by a different set of rules than other law enforcement types. I imagine 9/11 only entrenched this further and made it worse because terrorism.

  3. Harry Enpaddock says

    Augustpamplona

    911 is scientifically proven via Newtonian physics to be a controlled demolition designed to get the public behind their invasions of the middle east for oil and geopolitical/petrodollar control and their introduction of draconian removal of human rights at home.

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