by Michael Huspek

About the author: Michael Huspek is an associate professor of communications at California State University in San Marcos.

A report by the San Diego office of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) reveals 267 complaints of human and civil rights violations suffered by persons at the hands of law enforcement officials in and around San Diego, California. While the complaints involve the Sheriff’s Department in Vista, San Marcos and Fallbrook, the San Diego Police Department and the California Highway Patrol, those agencies most frequently singled out are U.S. Customs and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), including the Border Patrol.

Among the complaints are 63 narratives, recorded over a three-year period, that provide a uniquely human look at how law enforcement agencies may be operating on the edge of lawlessness. Among...