ACLU affiliates in New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont have settled a federal lawsuit

ACLU affiliates in New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont have settled a federal lawsuit challenging unconstitutional Border Patrol checkpoints in northern New England. The ACLU filed suit in August 2020 following a series of unlawful searches and seizures at a Border Patrol checkpoint in Woodstock, N.H., a small North Country town about 90 miles from the Canadian border. Border Patrol has not operated the Woodstock checkpoint — or any other temporary interior checkpoints in northern New England — since 2019. In exchange for the withdrawal of this lawsuit, Border Patrol has agreed to refrain from operating the Woodstock checkpoint until Jan. 1, 2025. “Border Patrol’s interior checkpoint operations are unlawful and invasive, and this settlement means the people of northern New England will continue to be free from these unconstitutional searches and seizures in Woodstock until Jan. 1, 2025,” said Gilles Bissonnette, Lia Ernst, Legal Director, ACLU of Vermont: “These unconstitutional Border Patrol checkpoints offend basic notions about what it means to live in a free society. Simply put, people should not have to answer to armed and unaccountable federal agents while they are going about their daily business. It is past time for Congress to rein in this notoriously violent and abusive agency, and to advance humane border policies and comprehensive immigration reform.”