One of my readers recently drove from California to Texas via I-8 to Casa Grande, I-10 to Van Horn, U.S. 90 to Laredo, and then U.S. 83 to McAllen.
“There are a total of 4 checkpoints,” he says, “on this route that are operated by the U.S. Border Patrol. These checkpoints have a series of perhaps 20-50 cameras/microphones that are strategically positioned right before and after checkpoints. My assumption is that
someone quickly reviews the images to find something to warrant a secondary inspection. Also, they may be associating persons to vehicles etc.
“The route I took was close to the border and I would advise highly against routes like this one. I saw, at minimum, 100 border patrol vehicles in a 400 mile stretch. Some of these were patrolling 2-3 mile segments. It's basically almost like a war-zone nowadays.”
Canada: “On a recent trip to Canada,” he adds, “I noticed that not only my own cell phone, but the cell phones of some fellow travelers changed within a mile or two of the border. The carrier was ATT and then changed not to Rogers, but to some strange series of characters.
I suspect that the border might be monitoring and re-routing communications . . .”
Privacy blog post by JJ Luna at 9:06 AM
