Border Patrol State

Ms. Silko,
Reading your arguments presented were very interesting to read. However though, I had to disagree with you in some aspects. Relating this to a personal story or experience, I have never felt the ways that you have felt when traveling within our borders. I felt it really interesting that you stated "Unfortunately, what happened to me is an everyday occurrence here now. Since the 1980s, on top of greatly expanding border checkpoints, the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Border Patrol have implemented policies that interfere with the rights of U.S. citizens to travel freely within our borders." I thought this was interesting just because I don't think that checkpoints and all interfere with our rights as citizens. However, I believe that these are done to actually protect us and catch those who aren't citizens and those who have committed crimes while being here in the United States.
I also thought that though your arguments were interesting, I felt that they were a little over dramatic when you stated, " I thought how easy it would be for the Border Patrol to shoot us and leave our bodies and car beside the highway, like so many bodies found in these parts and ascribed to drug runners." As having traveled through the same road as you, I felt that this was a little over exaggerated. In the many times I have traveled the same road, not once have I had the feeling that the border patrol would hurt us in any way. Yes, they do stop you at checkpoints, but they simply just ask you "are you an American citizen?" and let you go. Some might argue like yourself that the border patrol would only do this to non minorities but however, I am a minority as well and I still to this day have not endured the same situation as you have endured. Also, you also mentioned about the way individuals spoke and the accents they had that could be the cause of their detainment. This was one more comment that I had to disagree on due to the fact that my dad has a slight accent and not once have we been racially profiled nor detained at a checkpoint. In your writing, I understood every argument that you made. Like I said before, you made some very key points in your writings but for the most part I would have to agree with you. I realize times have changed, so that may be a factor in our disagreeing as well.