TSA searches have been expanding in recent months, thanks to its 25 Visible Intermodal Prevention & Response Teams which conduct random checks without suspicion. First authorized in 2005, they are now increasingly being used at train stations. The checks are being noticed at LA's Union Station. An additional 12 teams are planned for 2012. Since last summer, the VIPR teams have conducted 9,300 suspicionless searches.

What's a Visible Intermodal Prevention & Response Team? According to TSA:

The U.S. has added another surveillance drone to the Southwest border to aid in the war on drugs. It's in Sierra Vista, AZ.

The Predator-B drone is based at the National Air Security Operations Center in Sierra Vista, a few miles north of the Mexico border in southeast Arizona, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency said.

The addition brings CBP's fleet of surveillance drones along the nearly 2,000-mile southwest border with Mexico to six. Four are based at the Arizona center, and two more overfly the border from Corpus Christi, Texas.

The addition was authorized in the supplemental budget provisions of August 2010. CBP's press release is here. CBP's list of top seizures for 2011 is here.

The Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department has rejected South Carolina's Voter ID law on the grounds that it discriminates against minorities.

The law, passed in May and signed by Gov. Nikki Haley ®, requires voters to show a driver’s license or one of several other forms of photo identification.

....The rejection leaves the state with the option of trying to get the law approved by a federal court or passing another law and submitting it to the Justice Department.

It's good to see the Justice Department stepping up to the plate.

The Justice Department, concluding that there is no legal basis to place greater restrictions on the purchase of guns by lawful immigrants as opposed to citizens, is dropping a policy that did just that.

Here's the letter the ATF has sent out to federal gun licensees.

The Department of Justice (the Department) has recently concluded that, as a matter of law, applying a more stringent State residency requirement for aliens legally present in the U.S. than for U.S. citizens is incompatible with the language of the GCA. As a result, ATF will be revising the regulations in 27 C.F.R. Part 478 to conform to the Department’s conclusions by removing the separate 90-day residency requirement for aliens. Once the regulations have been revised, both U.S. citizens and aliens legally present in the U.S. will be subject to the same requirements for State residency

The Guardian and CNN have good recaps of Bradley Manning's hearing this week.

David Coombs, Manning's lead defense counsel, seemed for focus on two major issues - the Army's lack of response to Manning's emotional and behavior problems as well lack of security in the SCIF where Manning worked in Iraq.

The judge/hearing officer is to make his recommendation to the special Court Martial Convening Authority. by Jan. 16 as to whether Manning should face a full courts-martial proceeding. If convicted of the charges, Manning faces a potential life sentence.

The Department of Justice has released its findings into the investigation of East Haven, CT police practices. A fuller version of the findings is here.

Based on our investigation, we find that the East Haven Police Department engages in discriminatory policing against Latinos including: targeting Latinos for discriminatory traffic enforcement; treating Latino drivers more harshly than non-Latino drivers after traffic stops; and intentionally and woefully failing to design and implement internal systems of control that would identify, track, and prevent such misconduct.

The pattern or practice of discriminatory policing that we observed is deeply rooted in the Police Department’s culture and substantially interferes with the ability of the Department to deliver services to the entire East Haven community.

Background is here and here.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced today that Maricopa County has been terminated from the controversial 287(g) Secure Communities program as a result of the Justice Department's report today finding civil rights violations.

“The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is troubled by the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) findings of discriminatory policing practices within the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO). Discrimination undermines law enforcement and erodes the public trust. DHS will not be a party to such practices. Accordingly, and effective immediately, DHS is terminating MCSO’s 287(g) jail model agreement and is restricting the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office access to the Secure Communities program.

DHS will utilize federal resources for the purpose of identifying and detaining those individuals who meet U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) immigration enforcement priorities. The Department will continue to enforce federal immigration laws in Maricopa County in smart, effective ways that focus our resources on criminal aliens, recent border crossers, repeat and egregious immigration law violators and employers who knowingly hire illegal labor.”

Now it's time to end Secure Communities.

The ACLU has released a report on domestic use of drones. Shorter version: They are coming, to be used as tools of law enforcement in spying on all of us.

Unmanned aircraft carrying cameras raise the prospect of a significant new avenue for the surveillance of American life. Many Americans have heard of these aircraft, commonly called “drones,” because of their use overseas in places like Afghanistan and Yemen. But drones are coming to America, and, as an ACLU report concludes, protections must be put in place to guard our privacy

It is anticipated that the FAA will propose new rules early in 2012 that would make it easier for law enforcement agencies to get permission to use drones in the U.S.

The full report is here.

The Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice has released its investigative report on Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio and the Maricopa Sheriff's Deaprtment. It finds serious civil rights violations. The full report is here.

The report finds "a chronic culture of disregard for basic legal and constitutional obligations." The Department is seeking a written agreement from the Department and implementation of federal oversight. If it refuses, it will file a civil suit to force compliance. [More...]

The Supreme Court has decided to hear Arizona's appeal of court decisions holding its immigration law, SB 1070, unconstitutional.

The issue the Court will decide is one of pre-emption, whether federal immigration laws preclude Arizona from enacting the four controversial provisions ruled unconstitutional by the district and appeals court. The 9th Circuit ruling is here. Arizona's Petition for Certiorari is here. You can access the pleadings here. [More...]

Sometimes "what is standard procedure" is the scandal:

Charles J. Kelly, a former Baltimore Police Department lieutenant who wrote the department's use of force guidelines, said pepper spray is a "compliance tool" that can be used on subjects who do not resist, and is preferable to simply lifting protesters. "When you start picking up human bodies, you risk hurting them," Kelly said. "Bodies don't have handles on them."

After reviewing the video, Kelly said [. . .] "What I'm looking at is fairly standard police procedure[.]"

(Emphasis supplied.)Worth noting this from former Baltimore cop and John Jay College of Criminal Justice sociologist Peter Moskos:

Mercedes Benz has an assembly plant in Tuscaloosa, Al. One of the company's managers from Germany came to Alabama on business. He ended up in jail for violating Alabama's new immigration law. Why? His rental car was stopped for not having an appropriate tag and he didn't have his driver's license on him, only his German identification card.

Alabama's new immigration law requires police to check citizenship status when conducting a traffic stop. Anyone without proper papers gets arrested.

"If it were not for the immigration law, a person without a license in their possession wouldn't be arrested like this...." Previously, drivers who lacked licenses received a ticket and a court summons....

The manager was released when an associate brought his passport and German driver's license to the police department.

What a stupid law. Not being in possession of a driver's license should result in a ticket, not an arrest. [More...]