What you have to understand is that these videos are taken at checkpoints set up many miles from the border by Homeland Security. The point is that they can't detain you, even for a brief time, or search you or you car without probable cause, which they don't have (and you can always refuse to answer questions). However, there's no law against asking you to consent to a search, and if you do it's perfectly legal. In fact, they can ask in such a way that you assume that you have no choice, and that's still ok.
The videos (and there are tons of them) demonstrate over and over that if you refuse to answer questions and ask if you are being detained / are free to go, they will grudgingly admit that they can't stop you.
On the one hand, i love seeing people exercising their constitutional rights. On the other hand, the fact that there's a sort of secret handshake to get out of the situation when police are gaslighting you plays into the worst of the "sovereign citizen" conspiracy theories that if you write some magic words on your tax return you are exempt from paying taxes, and the like.
Here's one from Australia where some (drunk sounding) guys go through an alcohol test without stopping, which is illegal and with inevitable results. They thought they could use the 'am I under arrest?' strategy without understanding the situation at all.
That said, I can see how the border checkpoints that are nowhere near the border would be frustrating, and good on the locals for protecting their rights.
There are lots of things the police or federal law enforcement agents can't legally do but they do anyway. I'd rather not be the antagonist that pisses off the guy with a bad temper, mace, a taser, handcuffs, a gun, and the presumption of authority.
Hell yeah they do. Their powers begin and end with you crossing a border. Driving to the grocery store and they just happen to set up a check right outside? They can pound sand. You drove cross country and thy have a few questions? Ask if you're being detained and for what cause. Took a domestic flight from NYC to LA. Unless that flight had a stopover in Toronto you didn't cross a border.
From your own link:
> Border Patrol, nevertheless, cannot pull anyone over without "reasonable suspicion" of an immigration violation or crime (reasonable suspicion is more than just a "hunch"). Similarly, Border Patrol cannot search vehicles in the 100-mile zone without a warrant or "probable cause".
Unlike the airport that 100 mile zone is not a free for all. They can ask you questions. You are free to not answer them. You haven't violated any laws by not doing so. Unless you crossed a border very recently you can tell CBP to kick rocks.
> In practice, Border Patrol agents routinely ignore or misunderstand the limits of their legal authority in the course of individual stops, resulting in violations of the constitutional rights of innocent people. These problems are compounded by inadequate training for Border Patrol agents, a lack of oversight by CBP and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the consistent failure of CBP to hold agents accountable for abuse. Thus, although the 100-mile border zone is not literally "Constitution free," the U.S. government frequently acts like it is.
Scream "AM I BEING DETAINED!" all you want, you might win a court case. You still got your butthole probed.
The videos (and there are tons of them) demonstrate over and over that if you refuse to answer questions and ask if you are being detained / are free to go, they will grudgingly admit that they can't stop you.
On the one hand, i love seeing people exercising their constitutional rights. On the other hand, the fact that there's a sort of secret handshake to get out of the situation when police are gaslighting you plays into the worst of the "sovereign citizen" conspiracy theories that if you write some magic words on your tax return you are exempt from paying taxes, and the like.