ACLU Sues Border Patrol For Details About 'Warrantless Searches', Alleges Racial Profiling

DETROIT (WWJ) - The American Civil Liberties Union and other groups have filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Customs and Border Protection questioning if agents are racially profiling both foreigners and American Citizens

In the lawsuit, filed Wednesday morning in federal court in Detroit, the groups claim the government hasn't turned over information requested about stops and detention of various people under a law that allows for "warrantless searches" in Michigan to fight illegal immigration.

"Almost one-third of the people being stopped and detained are United State Citizens," said ACLU Attorney Mariam Aukerman, in an interview with WWJ's Zahra Huber on Wednesday. "And 40 percent are either US citizens or people who are lawfully in the United States — that's extremely concerning."

[View a copy of the lawsuit: PART ONE; PART TWO]

Aukerman said the ACLU is asking a judge to order Customs and Border Patrol to release detailed stop and detention records, something the agency has so far refused to do.

".We need to get all the documents to really understand what's going on with this policy, what Border Patrol is doing around our state," Aukerman said. "We're concerned about this policy and we've been trying for a year-and-a-half to get documents from Border Patrol to understand where they're searching people, when why, how far from the border, who's being picked up — and we simply have not been able to get those documents."

Under federal law, CBP can stop and search anyone suspected of being an undocumented immigrant -- as long as they're not in someone's home -- found "within a reasonable distance" from an international border, a region interpreted as 100 miles from most borders, but which includes the entirety of some states, including Michigan.