Lawmakers seek immigration checkpoint reviews

Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Patty Murray (D-WA) and Gary Peters (D-MI) requested Wednesday that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) review the Border Patrol’s interior immigration checkpoints usage and Fourth Amendment compliance.

In correspondence to GAO personnel, the senators sought information on how Customs and Border Protection (CBP) prioritizes taxpayer dollars to strengthen border security while ensuring that rights protecting against unreasonable searches and seizures are respected.

“We request that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) conduct a comprehensive review of the U.S. Border Patrol’s use of interior immigration checkpoints to better understand how the agency balances its critical national security mission while ensuring compliance with the Fourth Amendment protections against warrantless searches and seizures enshrined in the U.S. Constitution,” the senators wrote. “While the GAO has previously reviewed the Border Patrol’s use of immigration checkpoints as part of its defense in depth strategy, it has not investigated the process for deciding whether, when and under what circumstances Border Patrol may conduct additional screening, searches, and seizures at immigration checkpoints.”

The Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects the right of Americans to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures. The senators noted that two-thirds of Americans live within 100 miles of the nation’s Northern, Southern, and maritime borders and could be stopped and searched within that “border zone.”