[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 109 (Thursday, June 28, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4737-S4738]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. LEAHY (for himself and Mrs. Murray):
  S. 3162. A bill to provide oversight of the border zone in which 
Federal agents may conduct vehicle checkpoints and stops and enter 
private land

[[Page S4738]]

without a warrant, and to make technical corrections; to the Committee 
on the Judiciary.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, today, I am joining with Senator Murray in 
introducing the Border Zone Reasonableness Restoration Act of 2018. 
This legislation, if enacted, will establish critical privacy 
protections for Americans by limiting the unjustifiably wide ``border 
zone'' within which Department of Homeland Security officers may--
without a warrant--stop vehicles and search private land for the 
purpose of patrolling the border.
  The current 100 mile ``border zone'' was established through 
regulatory fiat. While the Fourth Amendment allows limited exceptions 
to the warrant requirement at or close to the border, this 100 mile 
zone is neither limited nor reasonable. It includes marine borders. At 
present, it encompasses almost two-thirds of the population of the 
United States. This includes major cities such as New York, Seattle, 
Chicago, New Orleans, and Los Angeles, even the ``border town'' of 
Richmond, Virginia, as well as entire states such as Maine, Delaware, 
and Florida.
  The need for this legislation has never been clearer. The Trump 
administration's aggressive yet wasteful use of immigration enforcement 
resources has subjected law-abiding citizens to needless and intrusive 
searches at Customs and Border Protection (CBP) checkpoints far from 
the border. Not only do these searches produce minimal value to border 
enforcement, they violate the constitutionally protected privacy of 
citizens and residents of border regions, including in my home State of 
Vermont. Recently, CBP agents in Vermont have boarded Greyhound buses 
in Burlington without a warrant and inquired about the citizenship of 
passengers. They have targeted international college students for 
questioning about their legal status. In the nearby States of Maine and 
New Hampshire, they have shut down interstate highways with immigration 
checkpoints. In Montana, a CBP agent even stopped an American citizen 
simply for speaking Spanish.
  This should not be a partisan issue. This is about ensuring that 
every person in this Nation receives the constitutional protections to 
which they are entitled. Both the American Civil Liberties Union and 
the Cato Institute have sharply criticized these practices as 
problematic under the Fourth Amendment. Vermonters have rightly been 
concerned about these expanded border zone searches. They believe, as I 
do, that once inside our country the phrase `show me your papers' does 
not belong inside the United States of America.
  The Border Zone Reasonableness Restoration Act is based on an 
amendment that Senator Murray and I successfully attached to 
immigration reform legislation in 2013 during the Obama Administration. 
The 100 mile ``border zone''--and the similar 25 mile zone where many 
types of warrantless property searches are permitted--predates this 
current administration, but the actions of this administration have 
shown just how much we need legislation like this today.
  The Fourth Amendment does not stop 100 miles from our land and sea 
borders. Its protections extend whether in the heart of Kansas or in 
the middle of Vermont. Ensuring that the protections of the Fourth 
Amendment are available to everyone within the United States should be 
important to all of us, regardless of party or ideology. I hope all 
Senators will support this commonsense measure to ensure the Fourth 
Amendment is upheld.
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