Are the Border Patrol’s stops getting “absolutely ridiculous”?
Former Gov. Raúl Hector Castro stopped and searched last month at a checkpoint in Arizona.
U.S. Border Patrol stopped former Arizona Gov. Raúl Hector Castro last month at a checkpoint subjecting the 96-year-old to 100 degree heat while they searched him for more than a half-hour.
Even as his companion Anne Doan begged for better treatment of the elderly statesman, Border Patrol was unmoved.
“I understand Border Patrol has a job to do, but this was absolutely ridiculous,” said Doan in an editorial in the Nogales International newspaper:
“I feel less safe knowing that time and money is being wasted by agents who must check a box or file a paper knowing full well that there is no threat. It is the equivalent of TSA detaining a toddler simply because of random searches.”
Castro, who was governor of Arizona from 1975 to 1977, also also served as US ambassador to Bolivia, El Salvador and Argentina. The 96-year-old was dressed in a business suit and was traveling from his residence in Nogales, Ariz. to a birthday celebration in Tucson when the Border Patrol stopped him.
Residual radiation from a medical procedure the day before had set off an alarm at the check point north of Tubac.
“This was really bad judgment,” Castro said to Salon.
It wasn’t the first time. In fact, Border Patrol has stopped him three times through his life.
Nearly half century ago, Border Patrol agents asked Castro to show his work card outside his horse farm in Tucson. He said no and the situation escalated until Castro revealed he had been Pima County’s prosecutor, reported Salon.
A decade later, he was stopped and questioned in San Diego. The agent was suspicious of Castro’s answers until someone passed by and greeted the governor.
(Photo: Flickr.com/fboyd)
