Racial Profiling at Arizona Border Checkpoint: Report

"An Arivaca residents group called for an investigation of alleged racial profiling by U.S. Border Patrol agents at the checkpoint on Arivaca Road outside of Amado, based on a report it produced on volunteers’ monitoring of the checkpoint.

The new report from People Helping People in the Border Zone, which has called for an elimination of the checkpoint since 2012, showed that Latinos are more likely to face prolonged stops and secondary inspection than white people.

The group documented vehicle and motorist descriptions, duration of each stop, what happened during stops, whether motorists were required to show identification or pulled aside for secondary inspection, and the age, ethnicity and gender of the Border Patrol agent.

The group gathered more than 100 hours of data between Feb. 26 and April 28 this year, according to Peter Ragan of PHP. It recorded 2,379 vehicle stops, which an independent statistician analyzed.

“The statistics show what the community already knows,” said Kat Sinclair, the statistician.

The report showed that while the majority of the 2,379 vehicle stops were occupied by white occupants, vehicles with only Latino occupants were more likely to be asked to show identification. Volunteers observed 45 instances where motorists were required to show their identification, 34 of which involved vehicles with only Latino occupants.

There were 11 recorded instances of vehicles being pulled aside for secondary inspection, according to the report. Six of those involved Latino-only motorists, while three involved white-only motorists.

The report noted that of the 2,379 recorded vehicle stops, there were no apprehensions of criminals or seizures of contraband.

The effectiveness of the agency’s highway checkpoints has been hotly debated in Southern Arizona for years. While the Border Patrol says permanent checkpoints are a necessary enforcement tool, critics say smugglers circumvent the checkpoints, shifting smuggling into the flanking areas and neighborhoods.

Last year, the Arivaca group launched a campaign to demand the removal of the Arivaca Road checkpoint — one of three Border Patrol checkpoints that surround the town. The petition was signed by more than 200 people and 10 businesses, about a third of the population.

Residents say the checkpoint is a source of rights violations, racial profiling, harassment, unwarranted searches and economic deterioration." - Perla Trevizo, Yoohyun Jung, Arizona Daily Star, Oct. 19, 2014.