U.S. Border Patrol may start Sault roadside checkpoints

In a move that has prompted concerns from the American Civil Liberties Union, U.S. Border Patrol agents in Michigan today started exercising their right to establish roadside checkpoints within 25 miles of the border.

Associated Press says drivers were stopped randomly near Port Huron and Trenton today as agents searched for drugs, weapons, terrorists and illegal immigrants.

Similar rolling traffic stops may be established next summer in the Sault Ste. Marie area, Loretta Lopez-Mossman, acting chief patrol agent for the Border Patrol's Detroit section, is quoted as saying.

Non-citizens must prove they're in U.S. legally

WDIV-TV, Detroit is reporting that every driver is being asked his or her citizenship.

All who are not U.S. citizens are being asked to prove that they are in the United States legally, the television station says.

The roadside checks are part of President George W. Bush's push to enhance homeland security along the Canadian border.

Common in Southwest border states such as Texas and California, checkpoints have recently been introduced in Vermont, New York, New Hampshire and Washington state.

Michigan has the highest proportion of Arab-Americans of any U.S. state, and the Michigan director of the American Civil Liberties Union is saying that it will be very difficult to conduct the checks without profiling people based on accent or ethnicity.