Our new Constitution-Free Zone

While on a camping trip a few weekends ago, Jen ran into a roadblock in the small town of Newhalem, WA The officers explained that it was a 'Citizenship Check' but all the while the officers were examining her drivers license and registration, a police dog was walking around her car. Since she was loaded up with camping equipment, they asked her to get out of the car, bring our dog Buster with her and the police dog went through the car itself. Buster was not happy! Well, it turns out that the 4th Amendment is null and void when you are within 100 miles of the USA border. From Slashdot:

ACLU Creates Map of US "Constitution-Free Zone"
trackpick points out a recent ACLU initiative to publicize a recent expansion of authority claimed by the Border Patrol to stop and search individuals up to 100 miles from any US border. They have created a map of what they call the US Constitution-Free Zone.

"Using data provided by the US Census Bureau, the ACLU has determined that nearly 2/3 of the entire US population (197.4 million people) live within 100 miles of the US land and coastal borders. The government is assuming extraordinary powers to stop and search individuals within this zone. This is not just about the border: This 'Constitution-Free Zone' includes most of the nation's largest metropolitan areas.'"

A nice article on this at the Washington Post:

Expanded Powers to Search Travelers at Border Detailed
The U.S. government has quietly recast policies that affect the way information is gathered from U.S. citizens and others crossing the border and what is done with it, including relaxing a two-decade-old policy that placed a high bar on federal agents copying travelers' personal material, according to newly released documents.

The policy changes, civil liberties advocates say, also raise concerns about the guidelines under which border officers may share data copied from laptop computers and cellphones with other agencies and the types of questions they are allowed to ask American citizens.

And it's not just Newhalem, from the Seattle Times:

Checkpoint sticks in Forks' craw
The old logging town of Forks is filled with independent-minded folks who "live in the middle of nowhere. And want to keep it that way," jokes the mayor.

So it didn't go over so well when the feds showed up last week and, in the name of fighting terrorism, made locals vouch for their citizenship. "It has created a lot of turmoil out here," says Nedra Reed, mayor of the town of 3,200 on the far side of the Olympic Peninsula.

Starting at 8 a.m. last Thursday, federal Border Patrol agents blocked the highway outside town. For four hours, every car, truck and bus driving south on Highway 101 was pulled off the road and all passengers questioned.

Layla Iranshad, 27, was headed to her job at Peninsula College. She says the agent asked her if she was a U.S. citizen (yes, she answered), then asked where she was born.

"I said in England. Then he asked how I got my citizenship. He also wanted to know where I lived and where I was going.

"It freaked me out. Since when in this country do we get stopped on the street and questioned about our citizenship?"

U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced last week it will stop drivers at a series of random checkpoints on the Olympic Peninsula in the coming months.

You just have to love this Congress -- never met a law they didn't like or a freedom they didn't want to regulate. Looking forward to voting a few of them out in a couple years. UPDATE: And Playmobil already has the toy out for it: I for one welcome our new plastic overlords.