Feds Tracking US Citizens At The Border

Washington Post:

The federal government has been using its system of border checkpoints to greatly expand a database on travelers entering the country by collecting information on all U.S. citizens crossing by land, compiling data that will be stored for 15 years and may be used in criminal and intelligence investigations.

Officials say the Border Crossing Information system, disclosed last month by the Department of Homeland Security in a Federal Register notice, is part of a broader effort to guard against terrorist threats. It also reflects the growing number of government systems containing personal information on Americans that can be shared for a broad range of law enforcement and intelligence purposes, some of which are exempt from some Privacy Act protections.

Read the whole story: Washington Post

Comments

[elfaba]

welcome to the police state of america. heres what i dont get. if america is so afraid of "terorists", then why doesnt it just remove all american presence from saudi arabia; stop supporting israel; and fire all cia agents? there you go, problem solved. i should run for president.

[zizyphus]

The point to note in this story is that Americans are being tracked like dogs now. We are required to carry an RFID chip in a document in order to get in and out of our own country!

DHS is so stupid, along with the FAA, that any helicopter whether it leaves a heliport or an airport, leaves without any screening of passengers or cargo. In addition, there is no way to identify helicopters that are flying above you. The number is on top, or the side of the tail in tiny letters. No one on the ground beneath can see it, and it is the same for any other aircraft as well. I suspect that helicopters are the ones bringing in most of the meth and ice to our state. I believe they are rendezvousing with boats off the coast, and then dropping it to someone on the island. Who knows what else they might be carrying. They don't even have to file a flight plan, and once aloft, no one knows where the helicopters are or what they are doing.

Apparently if you can fly a helicopter, you can fly above the law. But ask yourself why the FAA does not require helicopters to paint a number on the bottom so that we the taxpayers, who support the airports they land in, can identify them.

[Pdubya]

it is obvious that the U.S. is NOT concerned about keeping terrorists out, but the U.S. citizens IN and programmed to hand over their papers. solve illegal immigration? take away their benefits and have a healthy economy! we would welcome them then as tax paying citizens. this is about eroding our middle class and creating a police state.

[Pdubya]

officials in green uniforms have check points WITHIN the States and are trying to stop people. (last video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msFEj-UBU9Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mxhnLUykWM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RIB_PK2M7o

[zizyphus]

Thanks for those links.

[RedneckDem]

Lately theres been more than usual kidnappings, crimes, etc... against Americans who cross the border. Whether its Spring Breakers or regular tourists Mexicans are making people disappear. And the drug wars and drug running, let alone terrorists crossing (potentially). This is a place where everything needs to be tracked. This is not anything like crossing from Wyoming into Colorado, this is crossing to and fro from basically a third world country where even the police are on the take.

[rue]

15 years, huh? This is how much longer the republicans think it will take to completely subvert the constitution and fully institute an oligarchy/plutocracy.

[peterg76]

There are many, many examples of authoritarian abuse of surveillance power by the Bush junta, but border agents are supposed to collect that information. That's their job.

[fcsakes]

It seems this will be another one of those historical footnotes where people look back and wonder why we didn't see it coming. One can only hope that one of the first acts of President Obama will be to get rid of Chertoff and abolish "Homeland Security," a name that sends ice down my spine every time I hear it.

[fact finder]

Isn't it so nice to know that our "leaders"? trust us so much. Just think a no fly list, Cameras every where but in the toilet or bed room or are they there too.? Devices that look through walls, cameras in space that can and do read your news paper with you. God ain't it sweet. Sarcasm intended.

[NicholeWebb]

Big Brother is watching you...

[rbspickles]

Hitler would be so proud and yet envious of the powers that the sheeples have turned over to the state. But of course, it's for our own good. We are too stupid to be able to lead our own lives.

[EattheRich]

Isn't it obvious that the so-called Do Not Fly list, which is reported to have grown to over a million individual names, and now this new You Crossed The Border list, is just the government assembling a detention list of individuals to be rounded up and detain in cause of a so-called "national emergency" as declared by the President or Congress? The fascist dictatorship of the United States is being constructed right before your very eyes! And it's so obvious and blatant it isn't generally realized by the American public in their cowardly fear of terror as they become inmates in their own country.

[fact finder]

EattheRich Be very careful what you say on some blog sites. If you aren't you may end up on that s*%t list.

[springsm]

I rather imagine that every "progressive" that posts on Huffpo is on that "no fly list"...otherwise where would they be collecting their millions ad nauseum. Oh ya..also be careful of the books you check out of the library, scan thru Amazon, buy at Nobelbarnes...etc. This is a paranoid bunch of gone awry wannabe bully cowboys running this country. I guess when there are more on the list than naught, we will do something. Won't we?

[geobushono]

POLICE STATE

lawful citizens are less free than illegal immigrants............what ever you feel about the immigration, tha fact is, THE STATE is using it's resources to control the People.

The Dems and the Repugs will both let this oppression continue, folks.
So after Obama is elected.......and the entire Congress/Senate are controlled by Dems, we must push to repeal ALL these repressive measures initiated by the fascists (with the full consent of the sitting legislators).
repeal The Patriot Acts, and dismantle Homeland Security-----THAT money can be better used to build schools and housing for the poor and disabled.
If somebody wants to have a cop-like job, let them be cops, and not some sub-sub catagory of gun toting thug parading around airports in their Gilbert and Sullivan Drag.

[AmandaBC]

Since part of my family lives in WA and I do cross the border at least once a month, I wouldn't be surprised if one day I ended up on a "terrist" list...

[Scott1560]

This is a big concern to many of us who live in border towns, hold dual citizenship and have family on both sides. And then there's the major delays, especially at WA border crossings. The blame mostly goes to the terrorists, but also to our elected officials, no matter their party, for going a tad overboard in their reactions to the threat. Nothing will change no matter who wins in November.

Never thought I'd see the day when I'd be apprehensive about crossing back and forth between Canada and the U. S.. A very sad situation.

[drec1500Madrid]

I'm concerned and I don't live on the border. I just don't think we need to be saved from ourselves.

[KISSman]

Creepy. I don't understand why this administration & Republicans are obsessed with becoming a police state.

[realityczech4u]

I'm with you, smoochy. Just let everybody come and go as they please. Pay them no mind.

[frankobeans]

russia china usa lol

[Bettysdad]

Could it be that Republicans supported Hitler and Mussolini until they fired a shot?

Could it be because our President's grandfather, Prescott Bush, financed Hitler, and continued to do so even after war was declared? The bank he was an officer of was seized by the govt under the "Trading With the Enemy Act."

Look it up: US v Union Bank

[AmandaBC]

"Could it be that Republicans supported Hitler and Mussolini"

...and Franco, Pinochet, Somoza, Batista, Salazar, Videla, Papadopulous, Pahlavi, Torrijos, Noriega, Jimenez, Pavelic, Pinilla, Branco, Médici, Banzer, de Oliveira Figueiredo, Álvarez, Galtieri, Suharto, Musharraf... just the first that come to my mind...

There is no fa_scist dictatorship the US government didn't like...

[AmandaBC]

Conservatism **IS** Fa_scism. A police state is every conservative's wet dream.

[watchingthings]

Has anybody thought of the average citizen...like your parents??? They have families too.....not just Americans.They love and cry too.