Originally Posted by
GUWonder
Saying "Yup, sure is" to indicate that a 50+% false alarm is "a system that's been shown to work quite well over many, many years" seems to be one of those "Good job, Brownie" moments during Hurrican Katrina -- another roaring success for DHS. Since the creation of DHS/DHS-CBP, the government has been doing a worse job in this regard than before the creation of DHS.
If you go back a hundred-odd years or more, Customs used to search every person, vehicle, and thing that came into the country. As traffic increased, they had to stop doing that. It's the same way with cargo shipments. A small percentage are examined based on targeting criteria and gut feelings. No one expects to find contraband with every single secondary inspection. That's not the purpose of the program. It's probably something like a 10% success rate in commercial air passengers (if you include minor undeclared items for which the officer allows the person to make an amended declaration).
Instead of thinking of those sent for secondary inspection as suspects, think of them instead as people who couldn't be cleared on primary inspection. That's more how the officers think of them (or should be...the newer guys don't seem to get this). If the primary officer isn't convinced of their lawful immigration status, they get sent in to immigration. If the primary officer isn't convinced that they don't have contraband, they get sent in to baggage.
If a judge kept granting warrants to local police that resulted in finding nothing as often as is the case with DHS-CBP, what do you think would happen?
Most likely nothing. Judges shouldn't care about the outcome. They should be concerned only with the question of whether probable cause has been shown.