Border Patrol

While driving to and from San Diego I've noticed that I always just fly through the deserted Border Patrol checkpoint. No one is ever out there stopping to look at me and see if I look like I'm smuggling in Mexicans. These signs aren't out by the checkpoint anymore either:
I hear that a few of them are still up down by San Ysidro. However, it seems that Border Patrol has not completely abandoned their checkpoint after all. I finally got stopped last night.You can't really tell from this picture, but that car in front of me is one of those little trucks that's packed with lawn equipment. When I was approaching the checkpoint I couldn't figure out why all the other cars were getting out of the right lane and moving into the left lane, which was clearly a longer line. So of course I moved over into the right lane. As soon as I saw the truck I knew what was going on, but by then it was too late to try and get back over. So I got to spend a few minutes sitting on the 5 while the immigration officer questioned the truck driver and his passenger, and then waited for them to produce some sort of documentation. I guess I don't look like a Mexican, or a smuggler. He waived me right through, didn't even bother to check the backseat.

I read online today that some of the signs have come down because they no longer have many smugglers dumping people off and telling them to cross the freeway to circumvent the checkpoint. The article claimed that's because most of the illegal immigration is now happening in Arizona and Texas. I'm not entirely convinced that it has more to do with border patrol not checking as much anymore.