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ATTN: "victorianbybirth" IN RE: your question about mere suspicion
By A2847LRT in A2847LRT's blog
December 5, 2008

Statutory is the key word and you even mentioned it.  The federal law has two basic statutory authorities under which all of the Border Patrol's authority comes.  They are INA287 and INA235.  The INA stands for Immigration and Naturalization Service b/c the statutes were written prior to the creation of the Dept. of Homeland Security.  These statutes, laws, or however you want to refer to them "trump" the 4th ammendment b/c of the fact that cities along the border are more susceptible to illegal activity, terrorist threats, etc.  Therefore the two statutes allow Border Patrol Agents exercise this authority within 25 miles of the US-Mexico border.  But technically, the statutes allow for this within 100 air miles of the US-Mexico border (I would have to go into great detail to explain the technicalities).  Here is a good way to explain the Border Patrol's authority at their checkpoints.  When you cross into Mexico or into the United States you have to pass through the Port of Entry on the US side.  The Ports of Entry are run by US Customs Agents.  By law, at every Port of Entry (POE) you basically have no rights.  Customs Agents are allowed to search you, your luggage, baggage, belongings, vehicle, etc at will.  This is in order to prevent the smuggling of anything illegal, to prevent the entry of undocumented immigrants, and also the entry of terrorists and/or terroristic threats (i.e. weapons, information, etc).  Think of each Border Patrol Checkpoint as another Port of Entry.  Therefore, mere suspicion is sufficient for searching a vehicle.  Now on a traffic stop, while BP Agents can legally pull a vehicle over based upon reasonable suspicion, they would have to develop probable cause to search the vehicle in that case.  As far as identifying yourself, that is standard law even down to your local authorities.  Also, the 4th Ammendment protects us from "unreasonable" searches and seizures, and that "...no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause..."  So even the 4th Ammendment does not say we are protected from being ID'd, or checked for a criminal history, or providing proof of citizenship.  Lastly, I would like to go back to the issue of "mere suspicion" and your question about pulling over a car because you don't recognize it.  Let me be more specific.  As I stated in my original post, Agents become very familiar with the areas they work (generally very remote, sparcely populated areas), the people who live in those areas, the vehicles that travel in those areas, etc.  So assume you are an Agent with 6 years of experience and you are patrolling a Farm-to-Market road when you see a white Chevy Malibu pull out from a dirt road leading to an area where several families reside.  You have never seen the vehicle before and you notice an "Enterprise Rental Car" sticker on the rear left part of the trunk (Enterprise places these stickers on the back of all their cars).  This is a perfect example of mere suspicion.  Now let's take it up a notch.  For a fact, in the last 3 months your station has arrested 20 people for smuggling undocumented aliens in Enterprise rental cars, each case within 10 miles of the same location.  This would be reasonable suspicion.  I apologize for writing so much but I am glad you ask.  And I don't think you are being argumentative at all.  Feel free to ask me any questions you have.  E-mail would actually be easier so if you have a question just send a message via e-mail.