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And how much has it helped up to this point? Granted, it may have helped some. Maybe as much as an AWB helped keep guns out of the hands of criminals?
FY 2008 Border Patrol Statistics
Here's an excerpt:
" The United States Border Patrol arrested 723,825 illegal aliens in FY 2008, a 17 percent decrease compared with 876,704 in FY 2007. Border Patrol agents seized 1,642,420 pounds of marijuana, 9,272 pounds of cocaine, and 735 ounces of heroin, decreases of 12, 35, and 61 percent, respectively."
The 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act gave amnesty to every illegal in the U.S. prior to 1982. So we basically had a clean slate and started over at 0 in 1982. Estimates run from 12 million to 20 million illegals here now. Let's use the high estimate and say that we gained 20 million illegals in 27 years. Thats 740,741 illegals per year. Last year was the lowest number of apprehensions in years and BP caught 723,825 illegals. That means that, by the numbers, we caught roughly 97% as many as got past. Considering the odds that agents face batting close to .500 is pretty good. Certainly more than "it may have helped some," and definately better than the effectiveness of the AWB.
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As far as our courts finding all this to be constitutional, well, refer to my comment on how some of our law makers regard the constitution as a group of 'suggestions'.
For 33 years since the ruling people have been fighting this. Don't you think that in 33 years someone would have made some ground? Why would a few extremists know more than 33 years of supreme court rulings? It's even held up in the 9th circuit several times, and if there's any way to rule against law enforcement the 9th circuit will find it. Ask anybody that's tried to prosecute someone in it.
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The bottom line to me as a taxpayer is, the agents are paid to enforce immigration laws, not to settle personal scores with some lippy activist who bruised their fragile egos.
Escalation of force on non-compliant subjects is standard operating procedure for law enforcement world wide. If it wasn't, any criminal could simply be non-compliant and just walk away from cops. It would be great for bank robbers if it worked that way but unfortunately for them it doesn't. His aggresive manner was further grounds for suspicion. I understand the thinking that because he had a camera the agents should have assumed he was what he was, but the problem is that it would be a simple matter for smugglers to adopt his tactics. Then what? Countless illegals and thousands of pounds of dope get by because the agents avoid confrontation.
Leon, I don't know how it works for other agencies but BP generally doesn't need to get a warrant it they have PC due to the remote locations they are generally in. A warrant is best if it is possible but for agents in the field it usually isn't.