County Sheriffs & Stone Gardens
Channel: CheckpointUSA
Date: 2013-07-31

On May 16, 2013 while traveling along SR-86 in Southern Arizona, I noted the presence of a Pima County Sheriff's Deputy at the Customs & Border Protection roadblock I'm routinely seized at. After being waved through the roadblock, I pulled off to the side of the road to find out what the deputy was doing there. The deputy indicated she was being paid from a federal grant to provide a local law enforcement presence at the roadblock and general assistance to the federal agents as needed. 

A subsequent public records search revealed that the Pima County Sheriff's Dept. received a one million dollar grant from the Department of Homeland Security under Operation Stonegarden to assist federal agents operating in the county. See:

      freedomsphoenix.com/Uploads/129/Media/StoneGardenGrant.pdf

Given that county sheriff's have no jurisdiction or authority to enforce federal immigration laws, the presence of deputies at such federal roadblocks indicate their scope has been expanded into the realm of general law enforcement.This fact coupled with the presence of drug sniffing dogs, DEA camera surveillance arrays, wanted felon boards and agents who freely admit they are actively looking for drugs and other violations of the law while stopping people at so-called immigration roadblocks make it clear they are running afoul of U.S. Supreme Court limitations on such operations as established in rulings such as U.S. V Martinez-Fuerte and City of Indianapolis V Edmond. 

It should be noted that this encounter took place about six weeks after a county deputy cited me for stopping unnecessarily in the lane of traffic at this same roadblock while I was being seized by federal agents in the lane of traffic next to two stops signs. I fought the charge in court and was successful in getting it dismissed. In the process, I learned that the deputy who cited me on behalf of federal agents at the roadblock was also being paid overtime from Operation Stonegarden funds.