An assault on freedom and the Constitution in southeastern North Carolina

One of the most important distinguishing characteristics of a free society is what former Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis described simply and eloquently nearly a century ago as “the right to be let alone.” 

Like a lot of Americans who came of age in the latter part of the 20th century, I remember absorbing this fundamental idea of the U.S. Constitution and having it brought home to me while consuming any number of classic films and books that showed the frightening reality of life in Nazi Germany, Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe, and other totalitarian states.

One of the best things about the country in which I grew up, I learned, was that we Americans don’t have to line up passively like sheep to prove who we are to government officials merely because we’re traversing a public thoroughfare. Indeed, it was this simple fact – perhaps more than any other – that made our lives were so clearly and powerfully distinguishable from that of the unlucky millions stuck behind “the iron curtain.” 

Of course, I learned later that there had been frequently some big and disturbing exceptions to this fundamental freedom in American history – most notably the evil and discriminatory treatment of Black Americans that was inaugurated under slavery and continued in many places into the present. And then, in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, there was the complete and sobering overhaul of American air travel that forced us to surrender a sizable measure of our privacy and personal dignity in the name of combating terrorism.

All that said, the basic idea that, doggone it, government employees – be they law enforcement officers, immigration officials, safety inspectors, or some other unidentified bureaucrat – should not and cannot invade our space or privacy without a very specific and darn good reason remains at the heart of the American experiment. Indeed, for all our imperfections in enforcing and executing it, this idea is one that still remains a shared north star for millions of people across the political spectrum. 

Unfortunately, and tragically, this fundamental right is currently under a terrible and sustained assault throughout the country right now as the Trump administration and its allies in state and local government pursue their unconstitutional and un-American anti-immigrant pogrom. 

North Carolinians were reminded of this sobering fact yet again recently when it was reported that law enforcement officers of some ilk had established a “license checkpoint” on a public road in Columbus County and arrested or detained 10 people.

As NC Newsline journalist Trevon Spencer detailed in a September 25 story, the immigrant rights advocacy group Siembra NC reported that at least 10 people were arrested or detained.

According to witnesses, drivers and passengers alike were questioned about their immigration status and asked to provide citizenship documents. This is from Spencer’s report:

All of this would be bad enough if the arrested individuals were booked in public in a court of law, apprised of their rights, allowed to contact family members and post bail, and provided with legal representation.

But according to the report, family members were unable to contact those who were arrested or even to find out who it was that had arrested them. 

Spencer reported further that the Columbus County Sheriff’s Office, which participates in the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency’s 287(g) Task Force, declined to confirm the checkpoint or the arrests. The office said it could not release information because it was part of an ongoing investigation.

In other words, at least 10 people on an American street minding their own business not only had their privacy wrongfully and unconstitutionally violated, but they were also quite literally “disappeared” by unidentified individuals who were presumably officers of our government. 

This is the kind of beyond deplorable and unacceptable action that’s right out of the playbook of the Gestapo, the KGB and the white supremacist vigilantes of the Jim Crow era.       

Yes, it may be true that some of the arrested individuals had or have immigration or other legal issues. Millions of people do, both citizens and noncitizens.

But when taxpayer-funded officials are empowered to randomly stop people on the street and secret them off to undisclosed locales – whoever they are and whatever their alleged offenses – our nation has taken a huge and disturbing step toward abandoning one of its cornerstone principles. 

And all of us – whatever our status, race, wealth, affiliations, or beliefs – are significantly less free as a result.