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Comment by avar | Hacker News Reader

I don't understand how you think the officers in question did anything wrong.

I'm not American, so I have no stake in defending the US border patrol, but this is what I'd expect border patrol anywhere in the world to do. Their entire job function is to prevent illegal entry, toll violations etc.

By your own account you were in possession of a valid passport clearly indicating that you're working in an official capacity for a foreign state. Why would border patrol anywhere in the world continue to detain you at that point?

Is there some illegal immigration problem in any country on Earth stemming from people in possession of official government passports indicating that they work for their respective states that I'm unaware of? How is this not as clear of a signal as anything short of the agent personally recognizing you as a foreign ambassador that you should be sent on your way?

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I don't think that the officers did anything wrong.

I didn't like that the officers only decided to search my vehicle after they knew I wasn't a US citizen and then abandoned the search once they saw my visa but I don't think that these decisions exceeded the discretion that the offices are authorized to use during a stop.

I also didn't like that the officers made me uncomfortable and nervous during the stop but again I don't think the officers were acting inappropriately. It's on me that even with my government background I get nervous interacting with officials in situations like this.

I guess if anything my complaint is that I would prefer that border patrol checkpoints only stop people who are in the process of crossing a border rather than random highway checkpoints (in this case I was probably an hour away from the border) and if you are stopping people without reasonable suspicion or probable cause I'd prefer that the same stop procedures be applied to everyone.

Not to defend any rudeness on their part, but that route is an infamous one for smuggling, so higher scrutiny of an out of area vehicle is not a huge surprise.

Their entire job function is to prevent illegal entry, toll violations etc.

To me, one of the key elements of the story is this: getting from Yuma, AZ to Las Vegas, NV does not involve crossing an international border. So this level of harassment a few hours drive from an actual border seems a bit uncalled for.

Technically, airports are borders, so if he did drive close to an airport, he was in the border zone.

It's a lot easier to have checkpoints at the chokepoints outside of the metro region, because all the illegals and smugglers have to pass through them at some point. There's too much surface area to defend in Yuma proper.

It's "a lot easier" to set up video surveillance in everyone's home, but we don't let the state do that either.

I'd say there's a trade off to be made. If we didn't have any illegal immigration or smuggling, obviously it would be unreasonable. On the other hand, if we had a million professional gang members entering each year via various tunnels into Yuma, it would be reasonable to put checkpoints on the outside of the city to help curb the problem. Or evacuate the city and nuke it from orbit.

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