[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 121 (Thursday, July 18, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S4952]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. LEAHY (for himself and Mrs. Murray):
  S. 2180. A bill to provide oversight of the border zone in which 
Federal agents may conduct vehicle checkpoints and stops and enter 
private land without a warrant, and to make technical corrections; to 
the Committee on the Judiciary.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, ``Show me your papers.'' Those are words 
that you should never hear once inside the United States. Unless a 
government agent has a legitimate reason to stop and search you--a 
reasonable suspicion or probable cause--Americans should not be subject 
to questioning and detention for merely going about their daily lives. 
This is a fundamental tenet of the Fourth Amendment. Yet Customs and 
Border Protection (CBP) operations are effectively immune from the 
Fourth Amendment within a broadly defined ``border zone.''
  And this so-called border zone need not be near the border at all: 
Seventy-year-old regulations define it as up to 100 miles from any 
border, land or sea. According to the CBP, southern Vermont is in the 
border zone, as is the entire State of Florida, and even Richmond, 
Virginia. In fact two-thirds of the entire U.S. population is in the 
border zone.
  In Vermont, under the Trump administration, the border zone has 
resulted in highway checkpoints and bus boardings. In May, Customs and 
Border Protection (CBP) agents set up the first highway checkpoint in a 
decade. The checkpoint was set up miles from the Canadian border in 
South Hero, Vermont. It was in operation for hours. We do not know how 
many hundreds of cars were stopped, but we do know that it did not lead 
to a single arrest or seizure. Last month, the CBP established a second 
checkpoint in the same location. This time nearly 900 cars were 
stopped, and only one individual was detained--for a visa overstay. 
Border Patrol agents have also boarded Amtrak trains in White River 
Junction and boarded a Greyhound bus at the Burlington airport, 
demanding to know whether passengers were citizens.
  Today, I am joining with Senator Murray in reintroducing the Border 
Zone Reasonableness Restoration Act of 2019. Our legislation would 
establish critical privacy protections by reducing the unjustifiably 
large border zone from 100 miles to 25 miles.
  I find it difficult to believe that these checkpoints are an 
effective use of law enforcement resources. Border Patrol stations in 
Vermont are already stretched thin, And just last month the Senate 
passed a bipartisan $4.6 billion emergency supplemental appropriations 
bill to address the humanitarian crisis on the southern border. The 
Department of Homeland Security's limited resources should be focused 
on improving conditions of detention and providing food, appropriate 
shelter, and medical care to families fleeing violence and dire 
poverty, not conducting pointless vehicle checkpoints miles from the 
northern border in Vermont.
  The Border Zone Reasonableness Restoration Act is based on an 
amendment that Senator Murray and I successfully attached to 
comprehensive immigration reform legislation in 2013. 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 it. That bill passed the Senate with a bipartisan vote 
of 68 to 32.
  Americans' right to privacy does not end simply because you are 
within 100 miles from our land and sea borders. I hope all members of 
Congress will join us and support this commonsense legislation to 
ensure that every person in this country receives the constitutional 
protections to which they are entitled.
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