ACLU seeks probe of alleged abuses at Arizona border checkpoints
Source: Reuters
ACLU seeks probe of alleged abuses at Arizona border checkpoints
BY DAVID SCHWARTZ
PHOENIX Thu Jan 16, 2014 6:43pm EST
(Reuters) - A civil rights group has demanded a federal probe into the operations at U.S. Border Patrol checkpoints in Arizona, charging that agents routinely abuse their authority and violate the constitutional rights of local residents.
Officials with the American Civil Liberties Union, in a complaint, demanded an intensive review of the policies and practices that govern these checkpoint operations scattered along the roadways near the U.S.-Mexico border.
"Many Border Patrol officials do not understand - or simply ignore - the legal limits of their authority at checkpoints," James Lyall, an attorney for the ACLU in Arizona, said in a letter on Wednesday to the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General.
Among the abuses cited in the complaint were extended interrogation and detention unrelated to determining a person's immigration status, unwarranted searches, racial profiling, verbal harassment and physical assault.
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http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/16/us-usa-border-arizona-idUSBREA0F1Y620140116