According to DHS, your "Rights" aren't your Rights

Mayor Anthony R. Silva, who was elected in November 2012, had traveled to China for a mayor’s conference, he said in a statement. Upon his return home on Monday, Silva was briefly detained by Department of Homeland Security agents and had his belongings searched, he said.

“A few minutes later, DHS agents confiscated all my electronic devices including my personal cell phone. Unfortunately, they were not willing or able to produce a search warrant or any court documents suggesting they had a legal right to take my property. In addition, they were persistent about requiring my passwords for all devices,” Silva said.

Silva was not allowed to leave the airport until he gave his passwords to the agents, which the mayor’s personal attorney, Mark Reichel, claimed is illegal.

The mayor said the agents told him confiscating property from travelers at the airport was “in fact routine and not unusual,” and promised to return the items within a few days.

Silva was also told he had “no right for a lawyer to be present” and that being a U.S. citizen did not “entitle me to rights that I probably thought.”

Since when does DHS (Department of Homeland Security) decide on what is and is not a "Right" guaranteed to us under the Constitution?

Are they Judges? Have they been to law school? Are they sworn in by the State Bar?

I'm sorry, this needs to be RE-Litigated.

Evidently, our Rights don't begin until we are 100 miles + from a Customs or Border Checkpoint.

Someone needs to read the Constitution, especially the 4th Amendment.

I wonder why I'm suddenly popular in China?

That is the 4th time they've shown up in my logs in the last 3 days.  Same IP Address for all 4 of them too.

Could it have something to do with the cameras I bought off of E-bay?  One of which is still giving me fits.  It is supposed to be a WiFi enabled Camera, and yet I still cannot get it to connect to my tablet, my computer, or my cell phone.  Not even after resetting it to factory defaults twice.

Maybe it something to do with the fact that USPS, CBP, or the NSA, held on to my camera for almost a full week before sending it back on it's way to me?

If so, THANKS!!, GUYS and GALS!!

One of the reasons I GOT this camera was because it is WiFi capable and you messed that up so I can't use like I intended to.  Mainly by putting it down range and viewing it's output on my tablet so I can see better, how my shots are.

It took almost a full month to get to me, and according to the USPS site, you guys had it in your grubby little digits, from the time it entered the country until it was finally delivered to my house, for a grand total of 12 days.

I'm just betting, the BoreScope Camera I ordered, which is still "SOMEWHERE" in transit will be delayed as well.  Uhh, Guys and Gals, I NEED my stuff to WORK the way it's SUPPOSED TO!!  Not, I get it and it doesn't work like advertised which means I have to waste time e-mailing back and forth, then sending stuff back and waiting for it to be replaced/repaired and sent back.  Plus paying for the return shipping, which has a few times been almost as much as I PAID for the camera or other item.

Please Guys and Gals, quit messing with my stuff.

If you want to know what I'm doing with my stuff, my E-mail is over there on the right under where it says "Send a Missive"   But Hey, you guys probably have my cell number anyway, just send me a Text Message.  Heck you can even go to the shooting range with me sometime to see me using the stuff.  Please quit messing with my stuff.  I can't afford to send the stuff back to get it fixed.

But I still can't figure out why my little corner of the innertubes is getting traffic from China,

Border Security in my neck of the woods.

See where the marker is?  that is the CBP station in Kingsville.  Go down the highway to Sarita.  That is where the CBP has a checkpoint.  And something was recently seized at Sarita.

"FALFURRIAS - Border Patrol agents working the Sarita checkpoint seized more than 3,500 pounds of marijuana during inspections of two tractor trailers on Wednesday.
Both trucks were headed north on Highway 77 when agents pulled them aside at the checkpoint for a secondary inspection."


This is less than 80 miles from my house.  What ELSE is getting through our border, that ISN'T getting found?  And what IS getting found that we aren't being told about.

When I play around with one of my improvised antennas and one of my scanners when I point them south I can on occasion hear on .FED and .MIL frequencies requests for translators, once I heard a request for HAZ-MAT, but never saw anything on the news about an accident needing Haz-Mat.  Note the .FED channels are usually encrypted, occasionally the .MIL channels will be. 

Now riddle me this.  This is Texas, all of the CBP personnel are Bi-Lingual, it's a requirement of their job.  They need to speak english and spanish.  Why would they ask for a translator?

Remember when the Russian Akula was in the Gulf?  And I saw a LOT of aircraft with MAD gear?  That post is HERE.  What AREN'T we being told?

Customs and Border PAtrol searching private planes without warrant

sometimes hundreds of miles from any border, and the private aircraft never even approached any border.

The CBP Agents have been removing FAA Required Data Plates from some aircraft, and their searches may be making the aircraft "Unflyable" through possible damage to the avionics by untrained uncertified inspectors.

"other pilots have been stopped and detained more than once by CBP agents operating well inland of the borders, targeting for invasive searches aircraft that never came close to crossing a border. AOPA is aware of some searches that could have compromised airworthiness, with uncertified personnel removing inspection plates, for example, not to mention the possible compromise of the pilot’s ability to safely fly given the stress induced by the demands made by armed federal agents"

Is there going to have to be a crash with the resulting possible death of the occupants of the plane and persons on the ground to stop this?

Or is this the start of a .GOV directive to force private pilots to restrict their flying, so as to further enforce unlegislated restrictions on the freedom of travel?

Since private pilots don't have to go through any security check points, aren't required to tell government agencies where they are going as they can change a flightplan while in the air if they even file one.  Is this the governments response to the freedom of people who can pick and choose when and where they want to go without having to deal with the intrusive searches and pawing of the TSA?

The CBP says it will be 6 months or more before they will answer the AOPA's FOIA request, if it all.

Do you feel safer now because of this?