"Constitution Free Zone," says ACLU

Normally under the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the American people are not generally subject to random and arbitrary stops and searches.

The border, however, has always been an exception. There, the longstanding view is that the normal rules do not apply. For example the authorities do not need a warrant or probable cause to conduct a “routine search.”

But what is “the border”? According to the government, it is a 100-mile wide strip that wraps around the “external boundary” of the United States.

As a result of this claimed authority, individuals who are far away from the border, American citizens traveling from one place in America to another, are being stopped and harassed in ways that our Constitution does not permit.....

What we found is that fully TWO-THIRDS of the United States’ population lives within this Constitution-free or Constitution-lite Zone. That’s 197.4 million people who live within 100 miles of the US land and coastal borders.

[From American Civil Liberties Union : Fact Sheet on U.S. "Constitution Free Zone"]

Lou Dobbs (yeah, I know you would never guess this) is outraged:

The American Civil Liberties Union has recently been publicizing the existence of a "Constitution-free zone," extending 100 miles from all US borders, within which the Department of Homeland Security claims the right to search and detain individuals without the "reasonable cause" required by the Fourth Amendment.

CNN's Lou Dobbs, known as an aggressive campaigner against illegal immigration, was predictably outraged by the ACLU campaign. Under a graphic reading "ACLU amnesty agenda," he sneered, "The American Civil Liberties Union claims the Department of Homeland Security's efforts to enforce immigration laws are 'unconstitutional.' In point of fact, it is the ACLU actively trying to block enforcement of this nation's laws. Is that constitutional?"

[From The Raw Story | Lou Dobbs: Why is there 'no legal recourse against the ACLU'?]