Thank You, The Caribbean Star

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Immigration Judge: No immigration checks between U.S. and territories

CHARLOTTE AMALIE, U.S. Virgin Islands (AP) -- A federal judge has ruled that immigration checks on people leaving this U.S. Caribbean territory for the United States were unconstitutional in violating people's rights against unlawful search and seizure.

An immigration official has recently stated that the ruling could force the shutdown of U.S. immigration checkpoints in the U.S. Virgin Islands as well as other overseas territories, including Guam and Puerto Rico.

"It could affect our practices in all of the territories," said Immigration and Naturalization Service spokesman Ivan Ortiz, adding that INS attorneys were reviewing the June 18 ruling.

In an 81-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Thomas Moore ruled that the INS had no right to check the immigrant status of travelers leaving St. Thomas Island for the U.S. mainland.

Moore noted that people traveling from the mainland to the islands were not subject to checks, saying the St. Thomas airport checkpoint was "inconsistent with both our well-settled principles of equal protection under the law and freedom from unreasonable search and seizure."

Subjecting people to unwarranted immigration control was tantamount to racism, he said. About 78 percent of the territory's 110,000 residents are black.

The ruling came as part of the criminal case against 29-year-old Camille Pollard, a Guyanese citizen arrested in May 2001 on charges of making false claims of U.S. citizenship.

INS inspectors stopped Pollard as she was about to board a flight to New York City. The inspectors said that, after they discovered she had false documents, she admitted she was a Guyanese citizen, according to court papers. Pollard's attorney Assistant Federal Public Defender Douglas Beevers asked the judge throw out evidence taken at the checkpoint, arguing that the INS had no right to inspect people traveling between U.S. territories.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kim Chisholm countered that Congress had authorized the INS to inspect travelers from the islands.

Moore ruled to suppress the checkpoint evidence, saying the government had not shown a pressing law-enforcement need to conduct unwarranted stops. Nearly 500,000 travelers had gone through the checkpoint in 2001, he said, but only 85 were found to be without U.S. travel documents.

Because Moore did not order INS officials to shut the checkpoint down, inspectors will continue to check travelers' documents at the airport, Ortiz said. That could change after INS officials have time to review the judge's order, he said, but gave no details on when the INS might reach a decision on its policy.

Pollard was freed on $10,000 bail while she awaits trial, according to court records. If convicted, she faces up to three years in prison. No trial date has been set.