New Legal Maneuvers on the Border

Today, Louie Gilot of the El Paso Times reports that “U.S. officials have figured out a way to deal with ‘spotters,’ people who loiter on the international bridges, watching inspectors work and telling cars loaded with drugs when to cross. The officials will just arrest them.”

In the past, Mexican citizens who were loitering on the bridge but who had not made a formal entry into the US were asked to return to the Mexican side. US law was not seen to apply to the bridge area, before a formal entry had been effected. But recently, immigration judge William Abbot of El Paso decided that US law applies on the international bridge. Abbott ordered the removal of Miguel Angel Cabrera Cruz, even though Cruz had been arrested on the bridge, prior to formal entry. He was brought by Custums and Border Patrol officials to the US side of the bridge, where he was ordered removed. A formal order of removal was entered against him.

The application of US law on the international bridge seems to result in rights under US law as well as obligations under that law. As the El Paso Times article notes, “[a]nother legal precedent reached in August and stemming from an El Paso case also said the laws of the United States apply on the international bridges: The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that non-U.S. citizens have constitutional rights at ports of entry.”

The story is here: http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_4401734.

-jmc