The Engineer vs. the Border Patrol
A friend was in a similar situation for a while: crossing a CBP checkpoint multiple times every day for work in south Texas.<p>At some point he decided to try to stand up for what he considered his rights in a similar way: not being combative, just not cooperating. He was thrown in jail for 3 days, then the charges were dropped.<p>He talked with lawyers and the ACLU. The ACLU were quite frank that they have limited resources, and so they have to prioritize cases that have the ideal defendant and political optics. If he fought it personally, the cost would start at five figures.<p>The folks doing this <i>know</i> there&#x27;s a high barrier to holding them accountable and leverage it wantonly.<p>The worst thing about these &quot;contempt of cop&quot; style arrests is, despite the charges being dropped, once you&#x27;re in the system&#x27;s pipeline, if you mess up about any of the restrictions, paperwork, court appearances, etc, you become a criminal. It&#x27;s easy to imagine a lot of folks might fall into that trap for innocent and mundane reasons.