Last week, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Arizona accused the Tucson Police Department of detaining people at traffic stops for an undue amount of time as an illegal tactic aimed at investigating their immigration status.

A Letter to the Law

In an open letter sent to Tucson Chief of Police Chris Magnus, the civil liberties group explained that their review of recent Tucson police action has found that the extended traffic stops were in fact constitutional violations which went beyond a requirement in Arizona's SB 1070 law -- the controversial legislation which allows for officers to make determinations on the immigration status of those they pull over.

“These practices go well beyond Section 2(B)’s requirement that officers make a ‘reasonable attempt’ to determine immigration status, and reflect fundamental misunderstanding of the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition on prolonging stops and limits on the authority of local police to enforce immigration laws,” the letter says.

The ACLU informs that the officers were actually going out of their way to transfer custody of those they stopped to the U.S. Border Patrol. The unconstitutional stops occurred in about 85 out of the 110 cases reviewed in records from June 2014 to Dec 2015.

According to staff attorney with the ACLU of Arizona. James Lyall, the data gathered shows that the stops lasted anywhere from fifteen minutes to three hours before the Border Patrol finally arrived.

"The majority of the stops we reviewed lasted between one to two hours. Most of these incidents were routine traffic stops -- many involving minor infractions, such as suspended license or lack of insurance -- which would ordinarily result in field release, but in these cases led to prolonged detention, sometimes including transport to the custody of Border Patrol. In some cases, families with young children were detained in order for the parents to be handed over to Border Patrol agents," Lyall says.

The letter highlights over 20 examples in which traffic stops were unconstitutional. The ACLU sees that the abuses which they have noted are compounded by what they have called “inadequate guidance, training, and oversight.”

What Will Homeland Security Do?

Aside from the letter send to Magnus, the ACLU also sent a second letter to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, complaining of the Border Patrol's participation in the prolonged traffic stops. “We are writing to request an immediate investigation of improper U.S. Border Patrol involvement in local law enforcement activities in southern Arizona, specifically Border Patrol responses to routine stops initiated by local police,” reads the letter to Johnson.

The ACLU of Arizona has stressed that as Border Patrol involvement in local law enforcement activities has become common throughout the country, so too have reports of civil rights violations tied to these activities.

“These incidents cause profound harm to individuals and families and undermine communities’ trust in law enforcement,” they explain.

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