Thursday, 13 April 2000
By Ignacio Ibarra
Arizona Daily Star
A federal appeals court ruling this week isn't expected to change the way Border Patrol agents operate in Arizona, according to local experts.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, ruling Tuesday on a California case, rejected race as a factor for agents when they decide whether to stop drivers.
The court's 7-4 decision stemmed from a Border Patrol stop near an immigration checkpoint in El Centro, Calif.
"Stops based on race or ethnic appearance send the underlying message to all our citizens that those who are not White are judged by the color of their skin alone," the judges found.
"Such stops also send a clear message that those who are not White enjoy a lesser degree of constitutional protection - that they are in effect assumed to be potential criminals first and individuals second."
The decision by the San Francisco-based court has already added fuel to the growing debate over racial profiling by law enforcement agencies in communities across the country.
But the court was clear in stating that the ruling broke no new ground.
"We decide no broad constitutional questions here. Rather, we are confronted with the narrow question of how to square the Fourth Amendment's requirement of individualized reasonable suspicion with the fact that the majority of the people who pass through the checkpoint in question are Hispanic," the judges wrote.
Charles Klingberg, a spokesman for the U.S. Border Patrol, said the decision is still being analyzed, but he certainly doesn't expect any changes in the way agents do their jobs.
"The Border Patrol does not use race as the sole reason to stop anybody. There have to be articulable facts or a reasonable suspicion of illegal alienage to pull anyone over," he said.
Armand Salese, a Tucson attorney, lost a suit filed in federal court in 1995 claiming that Border Patrol agents routinely stopped people based on their Hispanic appearance.
Salese said yesterday that the agency continues to use the practice all along the border every day. "It is typical of a Border Patrol stop. ... If you're Hispanic, you're suspicious," said Salese.
He said this latest ruling will change nothing.
Add to Community Front Page
------------------------------------------------------------------------