This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Friday, March 1st, 2019.

I'm Kendall Brown.

At the border, a constitution-free zone is in effect, running from the border to 100 miles inland. And in that zone

customs and border patrol has broader authority than you might hope. The

justification for that 100 mile band around the US is not at all clear.

Chris Montoya is a 21-year customs and Border Patrol agent.

We spoke earlier this month.

People who follow the work of the Cato Institute, specifically people like Matthew Feeney and Patrick Edington and Julian Sanchez and some others, you may be aware of what is known as the Constitution-free zone. I'm not sure if Pat Edington coined that

phrase himself, but the idea is that there's this 100 miles within the Continental United States

where the Customs and Border Patrol have, let's say, special powers that they do not have elsewhere in the United States.

Where did that come from?

Well, according to the Immigration and Nationality Act, I think it was, gosh,

I can't remember the year, but there was this phrase,

reasonable distance from the border.

Now, I don't know how it got to be a hundred miles but it's not in

statute that I could find so I'm not sure how that really got to be a fixed

distance. At any rate though, Constitution-free zone supports of entry specifically that's clearly the case.

You know when you come through a port of entry

there's no real expectation of rights you could say I guess you know I've passed through ports of entry and

they make you state your citizenship and they have a great latitude of questions they can ask you.

You know, they're pretty hardcore, they can be at the ports of entry and for good reason,

I understand.

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