On January 10th, the hosts of the radio talk show Free Talk Live spent about twenty minutes discussing my recent Homeland Security Checkpoint experience.

For those interested in listening to the discussion (which I highly recommend), the archived mp3 audio file is available on FTL's website. The checkpoint discussion begins about 8.5 minutes into the recording and continues through minute 28.

With regards to the checkpoint itself, it was still active as of last night - January 12th. This means it's been up and running for at least five days if not longer. Since the checkpoint is situated between the town of Three Points, Arizona and the Tohono O'odham Nation,

the residents of these communities are the ones who have been impacted the most over the past week.

Since there are no alternative routes through the area, residents have had little choice but to put up with these police state tactics just to go about their daily lives. Those commuting into the area from places like Tucson have also been adversely affected. As such, I will continue to provide updates and footage of checkpoint operations until such time as the Border Patrol gets tired of harassing the locals or the locals get tired of putting up with this Homeland Security nonsense. After all, those that trade essential liberty for security....

On a related note, I recently came across an interesting entry on the website for the local chapter of the National Border Patrol Union - the Local 2544.

Seems that there's been a long-standing dispute between unionized Border Patrol agents and the Border Patrol regarding overtime pay for internal suspicionless checkpoint operations in the Tucson sector. Union leadership claims the Border Patrol has been violating the law with regards to the current checkpoint compensation policy and is threatening a lawsuit.

If only the union leadership was as concerned about reigning in their own illegal actions associated with suspicionless checkpoint operations in general instead of lining their pockets with more taxpayer dollars to conduct ineffective operations that violate fundamental individual rights.

For those interested, the text of the Border Patrol Union post appears below. I recommend giving the rest of the site a once over too. Not because it has much of value to add to the public discourse but rather to get a feel for the mentality of the local Border Patrol union leadership:

Checkpoint Overtime Hearing

12-30-07 This hearing has been scheduled for March 20th and March 21st. We expect that the case may settle prior to the hearing. If not, we are ready to go. We have hired another attorney to help with the case (in addition to our outstanding Local 2544 staff attorney). We have also hired an accountant to help with the backpay calculations. We will continue to hire additional professional help as necessary.

We fully expect certain Agency managers to launch another offensive against the Union by starting their scare tactics again. Therefore, we would like to make the record clear now - the current Local 2544 president warned then CPA Aguilar and then ACPA Colburn seven years ago that they were violating the law and that they needed to stop their illegal pay practices. They refused to even discuss the situation and they arrogantly dismissed the issue by stating "We don't see it that way." The Local was then forced to file a grievance.

After years of stall tactics and other underhanded shenanigans by the Agency, especially the thoroughly incompetent former INS attorneys who worked for Johnny "Every Apprehension is a Failure" Williams, we are nearing a resolution to the grievance. The grievance is sound, it's based on the law, and all timelines were met. Chief Aguilar and his arrogance will cost the taxpayers a bundle soon. Those are the plain facts. We will forcefully rebut any management assertions to the contrary. In the meantime, please don't buy in to their tired old strategy of blaming the "union" for their own arrogance and lack of leadership.

We will post more specific information soon.