South of El Paso, on an interstate anyone entering or exiting Texas through New Mexico will travel, there is a mandatory checkpoint resembling a border, equipped with armed officers and drug detection dogs. The checkpoint is situated after a curve in the highway and is preceded by no sign whatsoever warning travelers of its approach. Identification is requested, cars are searched and the presence of dogs is used as an excuse to violate the fourth amendment rights of hundreds of thousands of Americans annually. On average, 10-15 individuals are arrested per day on drug charges at this checkpoint alone, many of them law-abiding citizens carrying no more than a personal amount of marijuana for medical use. Citizens from states that are known to be more liberal on the medical marijuana front are more frequently targeted. Some spend a night in the county jail and 7,000-15,000 dollars on legal counsel, all because they were carrying medication they need across a "border" that isn't at a border at all! Others are more unfortunate and spend years behind bars in prisons that still allow inmates to smoke in their cells. The local county's economy is entirely fueled by this system, so if you're so unlucky as to need a jury, you're doomed to be found guilty.
The ostensible purpose of this checkpoint is to help West Texas deal with the drug wars in nearby Ciudad Juarez. In reality, most of the individuals arrested at Sierra Blanca are law-abiding citizens who never thought they would be subjected to this sort of federal tyranny in a country that supposedly protects every American against unreasonable searches.
Help us end illegal federal checkpoints before they start popping up in other parts of the country!