It took me 40 minutes to hit “the country” after pulling out of the airport in San Antonio and heading west towards the Texas border with Mexico. Ranches, cattle, and roadkill lined my three-hour drive. Southern Texas is dotted with shrubs, grasses, and short trees.
After a few hours of straight driving, I was startled by bright road signs.
It was about 60 miles west of the border with Mexico. The signs read “Slow down: inspection” and “Check Point.” Cars heading west were told to simply slow down while cars heading east, away from the border, had to stop. As far as I could tell, a Customs and Border Protection officer asked the driver a few questions and briefly looked at the outside of the car.
Approaching the checkpoint heading west
I made a U-turn and passed through the checkpoint.
The officer shared that he had encountered “several” migrants just that day. “It’s been busy, really busy,” he said with a tired smile. I asked if this kind of checkpoint was always there and he said this location is “newer.”
Just to the left of the frame, an office was asking eastward-bound motorists some questions
In the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1946, Congress gave Border Patrol the power “to interrogate any alien or person believed to be an alien as to his right to be or to remain in the United States” and “board and search for aliens any vessel within the territorial waters . . . and any railway car, aircraft, conveyance, or vehicle” if “within a reasonable distance” of a U.S. border. As of 1953, the Department of Justice defined that distance as “not exceeding 100 air miles.”
According to the ACLU, when vehicles are stopped by CBP within these 100 miles, inspections must be brief and external, much like the one I witnessed. The ACLU does not say, however, that officers can detain those they find if they have “reasonable suspicion”:
An agent must have specific facts about you that make it reasonable to believe you are committing or committed, a violation of immigration law or federal law. If an agent detains you, you can ask for their basis for reasonable suspicion, and they should tell you.
Sometimes these checks can result in expedited removal, or expulsion without an immigration judge:
The federal government says that it will only attempt to apply expedited removal to individuals who have entered the United States without inspection in the last 14 days, have been encountered by an immigration officer within 100 miles of the border, and meet certain other criteria.
These kinds of CBP inspections are typical near an international border. With southern border encounters rising, border states are implementing similar measures.
With a post–Title 42 surge of migrants just over a month away, the state of Texas is setting up its own checkpoints using its Department of Safety as a part of Governor Abbott’s strategy to manage increased migration. DPS inspections are popping up near points of entry, causing massive backups for some northbound vehicles.