Just drove home from a birthday party near Pittsboro, NC. As we were driving north on NC-87 we encountered a road block being manned by sheriff’s deputies and state troopers about 14 miles south of I-40. They were checking everyone’s IDs and either letting them through or pulling them to the shoulder. I thought maybe it was a DUI checkpoint or an effort to nab people whose inspection stickers were expired, but then I noticed that all the cars being pulled over had Hispanic passengers. They also barely looked at my ID before wishing me a nice day and I could swear the deputy never looked at my windshield.
Now I’m wondering if we were in one of the counties mentioned in Sen. Dole’s campaign ad that features sheriff’s praising her for securing funding from a federal program that enables local law enforcement to identify illegal immigrants in their jails and have them deported. I’m not sure, but I don’t think the program allows locals to act like ICE agents and go out and find illegals, rather they are to use it to ID illegals who have already commited a crime. Well, other than immigrating illegally.
My gut tells me we were seeing an NC version of an immigration sweep and the road block was a pretense to find illegals committing a crime. Me thinks a lot of those cars are going to be found to have broken tail lights or some such thing.
Of course it could just have been a coincidence that all the folks who were pulled over when we passed by were Hispanic. Or that all the Hispanics had some kind of problem with a license, or title, or tags, or stickers or something. And yes there could be some other explanation, but my gut tells me it was a roadblock specifically set up for illegals
Oh, and don’t get me wrong. I have no problem with deporting illegal immigrants (don’t get me started on our screwy immigration system though), but I don’t know if this type of activity would be an appropriate use of the federal funding. Please do correct me if I’m wrong, but I think the Feds are pretty territorial about immigration enforcement. I’m thinking they wouldn’t be too happy if they found out that local sheriffs were proactively pursuing illegals
Befuddled 
My husband is a native Spanish speaker. He’s also a US citizen, though he doesn’t carry his passport or certificate of citizenship or any such with him. Do you?
This crackdown on DWH terrifies me.
DWH = “driving while Hispanic”
You need to remember this is about “Illegal Aliens” who are not authorized to be in this Country.
Your Sheriff is doing the right thing. If you do not stop the rampid abuse of our laws now you will be sorry. California now looks like a third world country in most of the large cities & in some areas of smaller cities.
Your complaints about this maybe being an “Immigration sweep” is astounding. I hope it is an “Immigration sweep”. Americans deserve security in their homes and communities.
If someone complains because they are pulled over, you should commend the law enforcement for protecting you and gladly show your drivers license.
Did you ever stop to think that maybe those who were pulled over may have an expired license plate? It sounds like you are the ones doing the profiling. Give your law enforcement the tools that they need to protect you and stop complaining. This will save many American lives.
Esbee,
I agree that it’s a problem if they are pulling over hispanics to check immigration status. It’s the whole “guilty until proven innocent” thing, and I should have stated in my post that is one of the things that bothers me.
pjamerican,
See my comment above in response to Esbee. Let me put it this way: not every illegal immigrant is Hispanic. Some of them are Easter European, some are Asian, etc. How would your average white person feel if they were pulled over on suspicion of being an illegal Slovenian immigrant? As for the point about expired tags I did address that in my post, and basically I said that it seemed awfully coincidental that ALL of the seven or eight cars pulled over had Hispanics in them. Also, my main point is that I don’t think the federal funding that the sheriff received was for proactive immigration sweeps and that the ICE might not take kindly to the sheriff’s efforts. I’m not even sure that the county we were in was participating in the program, but all of these things were going through my mind while I sat in line. If my suspicions are proven true then I think the sheriff was out of bounds.
pjamerican, I assume you carry your proof of US citizenship on you?
Americans come in all colors and ethnicities. Pulling over one group and detaining them until they prove their legitimacy is profiling at its ugliest.
Pull all or none.
There are a considerable amount of rules that have to be followed when conducting a stationary license check. If these rules were not being followed then the stops and any charges associated with them would be nullified. You have to determine how many cars are stopped at what interval (every car or every third car, for example) BEFORE you begin the checkpoint and you do NOT have to stop every car as many believe. If any half-wit attorney could pull all of the charges from the records of the clerk and demonstrate that the bulk of the drivers charged were hispanic it would create huge problems for the law enforcement agency involved. Unless the Sheriff and his men are complete idiots they should know this all too well. I know the NCSHP knows them. My brother is a trooper. I am thinking it was a big coincidence. It’s so easy to think law enforcement officers go around with their billy clubs smashing tail lights and planting drugs but Pittsboro is a long way from Hollywood.
I lived in Germany for 3 years, while in the Air Force. As a visitor in their country, I tried to speak the language, respected their way of life and would never have even thought of pushing my way of life on them on even bringing it into play. I enjoyed theirs!
I have no patience or compassion for anyone illegally entering this country. There is a way to do it correctly and it’s the way it should be done.
I applaud law enforcement for trying to stop this mass disrepect for our laws and way of life. I will gladly wait in a checkpoint and prove I am an American citizen and proud of it.
I served my country for 20 years and do not take lightly the blatant gall of illegal immigrants feeling like they have any rights.
Do not call me a xenophobe, call me law abiding.
Debbie, how will you prove you’re an American citizen? Do you carry citizenship papers with you?
It’s not that I am tolerant of illegal immigration. It’s that just as Americans come in all colors, so too do illegal immigrants. Stop all or stop none or stop in a preset pattern like Anon Y Mous detailed. But stopping only cars that contain one’s preconceived notion of what an illegal immigrant looks like is profiling. Period.
And frankly the idea of living in a country where police routinely demand “Papiere bitte” terrifies me.
Racial profiling is wrong. And that’s what this is. Reeks of South Africa during apartheid.
Rock on Sen Dole, your hubby should of been President, are loss.
Anon Y Mous wrote:
“I served my country for 20 years and do not take lightly the blatant gall of illegal immigrants feeling like they have any rights.”
Are you sure you meant to say “any rights”. Just suppose that we are talking about someone who is in this country illegally. He/she still has rights. Maybe not the full pantheon of privileges, but they do have rights.
You cannot kill them, cannot steal from them. They have rights against those things. They also have a right to be assumed innocent until they are proven to be guilty. And in order for that proof to be valid, any law enforcement personnel, government agency, or court must act within their constitutionally limited roles to deliver that proof.
If you served twenty years, the oath you made was to the constitution, and to protect it from enemies both foreign and domestic. If what Jon suspects turns out to be true, there are some domestic enemies wearing badges near Pittsboro.
My apologies to Anon Y Mous. I attributed a quote in my above comment to you. I meant to address that to Debbie. My mistake.
I think it is interesting to see so many agree that illegal immigration is wrong but what might be worse is federal, state, and local law enforcement not minding their p’s and q’s. If we are going to enforce immigration laws and policy then, yes, it should be done the right way rather than infringing on the rights of anyone. Especially Americans who don’t fit the mold of middle class white guy.
Our AMERICAN HOME is being destroyed due to the massive illegal criminal alien invasion.
Dear fellow Americans, if you truly love your home, your city, your schools, your ENGLISH birthrite!
Stand up and Speak out to our local Mayor and City Counicl and demand
they enforce 287g ( 287g is Training our Police need to ID and REMOVE criminal illegal aliens.)
Demand they enforce E- Verify ( all employers must run all S.S. Numbers to verify they belong to the employee using them)
If you don’t fight for your American Home NOW, well, I think to know how the rest of it goes.
IF I break the Law, I must pay—If a illegal criminal alien breaks the law they also must pay—We are a Country of LAWS!
[[IF I break the Law, I must pay—If a illegal criminal alien breaks the law they also must pay—We are a Country of LAWS!]]
Tell it to the telcos.
Lex; that is so off topic, it is insane.
Well 4ty8er I think what Lex is doing is pointing out to Joerocker is that our “Country of LAWS!” is often selective in its application of punishment for breaking said laws is often very selective. I’d say that’s pretty topical here.