Most people know that you have a lessened “expectation of privacy” when you cross an international border such as from Tijuana Mexico into San Ysidro, California. So we are not surprised when we get frisked and otherwise violated by a U.S. Customs officer if we walk across the CBX line at Otay. Maybe our car is searched when we are sent to secondary inspection. If you have not declared that you have over $10,000 in currency (that means dollars and pesos converted combined!) then Customs will seize it all. And if you are driving around the Campo, CA area, or Pine Valley, you can get pulled over for very little reason to inspect the immigration papers of your passengers. Why, because the Courts have decided that if you are within 100 miles of the Border, you are close enough. Did you know that the U.S. Department of Justice made 8 U.S.C. § 1357(a)(3) about the 100-mile border zone in 1953 and nobody said anything about it. That was a long time ago. Only 1,100 Border Patrol agents were in the entire USA, today, there are over 21,000. The bottom line is it is important to know that 2 out of 3 citizens of the US live within that 100-mile zone. So don’t blame it on your lawyer when the 4th Amendment offers less protection in the 100-mile twilight zone. Take heart in knowing that we are very successful in getting your vehicles and money back when seized, we just depend on other Constitutional rights.
