Media reports today, showing American citizens not being allowed to deplane, on domestic airline flights, until they show identification, called "papers" by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) are extremely disturbing. CBP only is authorized to check arriving or departing passengers on international flights. Photographs, and Tweets, showing passengers being harassed at JFK, when arriving from San Francisco, means that you better have your driver's license, from a state that requires only citizens possess them, handy, or you may want to bring your US passport along.
It has been alleged that CBP was looking for an illegal alien. but this conduct smacks of a police state, without any legal authority. Law enforcement routinely observes deplaning airplane passengers, but demanding "papers" be produced sounds like something from the old Soviet Union. CBP should tread more carefully regarding American citizens, who will not be shy in expressing their disdain for illegal searches and seizures, which are, by the way, violations of the 4th Amendment to the US Constitution.
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