At a moment when the federal government is taking racial profiling seriously, it was gratifying to read that Attorney General Eric Holder told colleagues that he believed that border agents did not need to consider race or ethnicity. Racial profiling is demeaning, offensive to American values, and ineffective. As todays revised Department of Justice (DOJ) guidance makes clear, it is patently unacceptable...for law enforcement officers to act on the belief that possession of a listed characteristic [like race, religion, national origin, or ethnicity] signals a higher risk. Then came the shock that the attorney generals views didnt win out: Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) have exemptions to use racial profiling in screening and inspection for border and transportation security and U.S. Border Patrol interdiction activities in the vicinity of the border and ICE Homeland Security Investigation (HSI) interdiction activities at ports of entry. Yes: The same administration rightly trumpeting progress in the DOJ guidance is at the same time giving a green light for TSA and CBP to racially profile at and near our borders – a vast zone because CBP claims authority up to 100 miles in from any border. CBP has a horrible track record of discriminatory enforcement against people of color. The ACLU of Washington settled a lawsuit last year where one of the plaintiffs, Ernest Grimes, was an African-American correctional officer (and part-time police officer) who had the misfortune of crossing paths with a Border Patrol agent. The encounter is telling and representative of the abuse felt at U.S. borders: A Border Patrol agent stopped Grimes vehicle, approached with his hand on his weapon, and interrogated him about immigration status while the correctional officer was in uniform. The New York Civil Liberties Union has documented racial profiling by CBP on buses and trains. A racial profiling lawsuit in Ohio revealed a Border Patrol supervisors racial slurs to refer to Latino workers. More:
Posted on: Tue, 09 Dec 2014 13:25:13 +0000
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