US sets up checkpoints seeking border violators
By David Runk, Associated Press, 11/13/2002
The main purpose of the checkpoints is to stop immigrant smuggling, said Loretta Lopez-Mossman, acting chief patrol agent for the Border Patrol's Detroit sector. However, agents also will look for other types of smuggling, and always are on the lookout for potential terrorists, Lopez-Mossman said.
''It's all about homeland security,'' INS spokesman Greg Palmore said before a press conference yesterday. ''Bottom line, we are here to be vigilant about the safety and security of the American people.''
Lopez-Mossman said that everyone would be stopped wherever a checkpoint is set up and that there will be no profiling.
Michigan is home to about 350,000 Arab-Americans, more on a percentage basis than any other state. The population is concentrated in southeastern Michigan.
New York, Vermont, and New Hampshire are among the northern border areas that already have similar programs, said Mario Villarreal, a Border Patrol spokesman. Officials set up a similar program in northwest Washington state last weekend, he said. The practice is common in Southwest border states such as Texas and California.
The Michigan checkpoints will be set up for about two hours at a time at various points in the areas of Port Huron and Trenton, both in what are among the busiest areas for smuggling activity in the region, Lopez-Mossman said.
Port Huron, about an hour north of Detroit, is a bridge crossing from Sarnia, Ontario. Trenton, south of Detroit, is not a border entry point, but is on the Detroit River near the entry to Lake Erie and has a lot of boat traffic.
Detroit, which has two busy border crossings, is not being included in the checkpoints because officials are worried about traffic tie-ups, Lopez-Mossman said.
The checkpoints will be chosen according to several factors, including whether officials have intelligence about smuggling activity, Lopez-Mossman said.
They will be conducted indefinitely and may be extended next summer to the area of Sault Ste. Marie, the border crossing on Michigan's Upper Peninsula, she said.
A civil liberties group raised concerns about the new searches.
''We believe it's going to be very hard for them to do this without violating people's civil rights or profiling people based on their ethnicity or accent,'' said Kary Moss, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan.
Since Sept. 11 of this year, more than 14,000 foreign visitors from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, and Syria have been fingerprinted at US border crossings, and 179 have been arrested, Attorney General John D. Ashcroft said last week.
Visitors from those countries are considered to be a high risk for terrorism.
This story ran on page A3 of the Boston Globe on 11/13/2002.
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