Legal Commentary

ICE Officer Learns What It's Like to Be Bullied By ICE Officers

By TChris

James Slaughter is a customs officer who (in his own words) "bleeds red, white and blue." He's offended that five of his fellow ICE officers (again in his own words) "bullied their way into my house" to search for an illegal immigrant they believed he was harboring. It turned out that the immigrant was staying at a residence on East 26th Place, while Slaughter lives on East 26th Street. Oops.

Slaughter's complaint that his Fourth Amendment rights were violated (a complaint he lodged in a pending civil rights suit) seems to be based on his feeling that, as a true patriot, he was gravely wronged by ICE's error. In Slaughter's words: "I serve my country, and then they do this to me?"

Actually, Mr. Slaughter, you got off easy. When you said you were a Customs officer, your fellow ICE employees retreated. If you were a foreign resident with a green card, or Hispanic, or just about anyone else, the officers would likely have ignored your protests and continued their search until they eventually discovered their error. [more ...]

Patriotic Americans who bleed the colors of the flag have no greater entitlement to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures than disloyal Americans or non-Americans. The Fourth Amendment protects everyone in the nation, not just those who believe they are serving their country by leading drug-sniffing dogs from car to car at the Mexican border. If Slaughter feels he was abused by his employer, perhaps he should give some thought to how his employer routinely treats individuals within our borders, regardless of the colors they bleed.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on April 08, 2009 (boomark / email).