World Food Prize goes to nutrition expert for fish research

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A nutrition expert who pioneered innovative ways of raising fish rich in micronutrients and fatty acids and incorporating them into diets in developing countries was named the recipient of the World Food Prize on Tuesday.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Shakuntala Haraksingh Thilsted, 71, who grew up on Caribbean island of Trinidad and later became a citizen of Denmark, was awarded the prize in recognition of her achievements in pioneering fish-based food systems to improve nutrition, health and livelihoods for millions around the world.


“Dr. Thilsted figured out how these nutrient-rich small fish can be raised locally and inexpensively,” said U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in remarks recorded and delivered at the announcement ceremony. “Now, millions of low-income families across many countries, including Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Nepal, Burma, Zambia, Malawi, are eating small fish regularly, dried and fresh, in everything from chutneys to porridge, giving kids and breastfeeding mothers key nutrients that will protect children for a lifetime. That is all thanks to her.”

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and UN Nutrition Chair Naoko Yamamoto also delivered remarks. World Food Prize Foundation President Barbara Stinson announced Thilsted as the winner.

The World Food Prize was created by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Norman Borlaug in 1986 to recognize scientists and others who have improved the quality and availability of food. The foundation that awards the $250,000 prize is based in Des Moines, Iowa.

Thilsted began research in Bangladesh in the 1980s while working to improve the lives of malnourished people. After talking to local women who told her that eating a variety of local small fish species made them stronger, she began researching their diet. Returning to Copenhagen, she studied the nutritional value of small fish species in Bangladesh and later Cambodia.

“I was able to assess the nutritional composition of these small fish species and realized that they were extremely rich in multiple micronutrients, vitamins and minerals, and most importantly that the forms in which they were found were highly available and could be absorbed by the human body,” she told The Associated Press via video from Penang, Malaysia, ahead of the ceremony.

That knowledge led her back to Bangladesh, where she studied how farmers raised fish, with the goal of helping them to improve their efficiency and their product's nutritional value. At the time, aquaculture was just taking off in the country, which now has 4 million household ponds raising fish. The common practice then was to clean the ponds of all native small species and stock them with carp species used as the primary fish for food and sold at markets.

Thilsted said that after many years of research, she and others showed that the farmers could raise the large fish together with the micronutrient-rich small native fish, increasing production and boosting the nutritional quality of the fish grown.

“That was the system we used for the aquaculture approach, which I call pond polyculture,” she said.

Her research done with the help of international organizations including UNICEF, the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development and the World Bank, improved the scientific understanding of the importance of fish in diets. The changes she helped bring about made a significant difference in the diets and incomes of some of the world's most vulnerable people.

Bangladesh's aquaculture production has tripled since 2000 and is now the fifth largest in the world, supporting 18 million people. The increased production has improved women's economic opportunities in particular, since they make up about 60% of fish farmers operating on small family-run operations in the country.

For 10 years, Thilsted has worked with Malaysia-based WorldFish, an international research organization that focuses aquatic foods in developing countries in Africa, Asia and the Pacific region. The organization offered opportunities to move her fish-based dietary approaches to other countries with funding from development groups including CGIAR, an international partnership of organizations focused on food security. She now serves as global lead for nutrition and public health at WorldFish. She also holds leadership roles in the United Nations Food Systems Summit 2021 and the High-Level Panel of Experts on food security and nutrition, which advises the Committee on World Food Security, the primary U.N. group dealing with food security and nutrition.

Thilstead also found ways to incorporate the fish into the diets of people who needed the additional nutrition. She advocated the widespread use of a shelf-stable dried fish powder with concentrated nutrients to be used with other spices as a condiment to add to other foods.

Thilsted said she was surprised to be awarded the World Food Prize since many previous winners have focused on staple crops such as rice, wheat and corn. She hopes the honor will enable her to bring attention to the importance of diversity in food sources, including fish and other aquatic foods.

“I can see that the award gives you a platform, and in my case, I would like to use that platform to move further with the work I’m doing and to move the recognition of fish and aquatic foods as being superfoods and important in the diets to deliver nutrients to poor and vulnerable people, of course in the cultures where it makes sense to do so,” said Thilsted, who said she didn't know how she'd spend the prize money.

She said she also hopes her award inspires women to pursue her field of study.

“I do hope also that with this platform and this award I have gotten it can inspire especially young women from developing countries to study science and take on a career in food and nutrition because I think its extremely rewarding and beneficial for many,” she said.

David Pitt, The Associated Press

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Dracula's Castle in Romania Is Now Offering Free Vaccinations to Visitors

It's not quite the kind of bite that visitors to Bran Castle — better known as Dracula's castle — in Romania might expect, but it does come with a profound effect. On Friday, the castle announced that it's kicking off a COVID-19 vaccination marathon, offering visitors free doses every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in May without an appointment.

© Jeremy Woodhouse/Getty Images 

Admission to the castle is not required to receive the vaccine.

The castle, located in the Carpathian Mountains in Transylvania, hopes to lure more travelers with shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, calling it "another kind of sting." Admission to the castle is not required to receive a shot, and those who get it will earn a "diploma" saying that they were vaccinated at Bran Castle. Visitors who do also pay for castle admission will gain free access to the special exhibit on medieval torture tools, the attraction described on its Facebook page.

Further leaning into the location's theme, the campaign's imagery features a photo of fangs replaced by needles and a nurse with fangs ready to inject a dose. Plus, the on-site medics administering the shots have fang stickers on their scrubs, according to the BBC.

Video: Dracula's Castle in Romania Is Now Offering Free Vaccinations to Visitors (Travel + Leisure)

Visitors are required to follow all coronavirus safety measures, including using hand sanitizer, wearing a mask, and keeping a distance of two meters (about six and a half feet) from others, according to the castle's site.

The medieval castle, which was completed in 1388, is thought to be the inspiration for Irish author Bram Stoker's 1897 novel, "Dracula," though Stoker never actually visited the Romanian landmark himself. The fictional title character is often mixed up with the real Vlad Tepes — better known as Vlad the Impaler — who ruled in the 1400s and is often depicted as a "blood-thirsty ruthless despot."

The vaccines are being doled out in the Medieval Custom building on Fridays from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m, Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Sundays from 10 a.m to 6 p.m. this month. It's all part of the government's effort to get more Romanians vaccinated, since it's one of the nations with the highest rates of hesitancy in Central and Eastern Europe, according to a study by Globsec. As of today, 2,314,812 people — or 11.96% of the country's population — is fully vaccinated, with 5,891,855 doses having been administered, per data from Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.

The CDC currently has Romania at a Level 4 "Very High Level of COVID-19" advisory, with the nation having had 1,066,111 cases and 28,966 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.

Football Fish: A monstrous-looking fish normally found thousands of feet deep in the ocean washed up on a California beach

By Amanda Jackson, CNN 

An unusual fish with teeth as sharp as glass and a body shaped like a football washed ashore on a California beach last week

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© Crystal Cove State Park The angler fish washed ashore at the Crystal Cove State Park in California.

The black colored creature with it's gaping mouth laid on the sand on the shore of Crystal Cove State Park's Marine Protected Area in Laguna Beach last Friday. The park shared images of the fish on social media and identified it as being most likely the Pacific Football Fish.

"To see an actual angler fish intact is very rare and it is unknown how or why the fish ended up on the shore," reads the Facebook post.

The Pacific Football Fish is one of more than 200 species of anglerfish worldwide, according to California State Parks, and is normally found in the dark depths of the ocean. The creature's teeth are sharp and pointy like shards of glass and their "large mouth is capable of sucking up and swallowing prey the size of their own body."

Due to the creature's size and the protruding stalk on the top of the head, California State Parks said this is a female.

"Only females possess a long stalk on the head with bioluminescent tips used as a lure to entice prey in the darkness of waters as deep as 3,000 feet!," according to the Crystal Cove State Park post.

They added that females can grow to lengths of 24 inches while males only grow to be about an inch long. The sole purpose of the male fish is to help a female reproduce, reads the post.

"Males latch onto the female with their teeth and become 'sexual parasites,' eventually coalescing with the female until nothing is left of their form but their testes for reproduction," reads the post.

The body of the fish is being held by the California Department of Fish & Wildlife, according to CNN affiliate KFSN. It is expected to be studied for research and educational purposes.

"Seeing this strange and fascinating fish is a testament to the diversity of marine life lurking below the water's surface ...," reads the Crystal Cove State Park post. ".. and as scientists continue to learn more about these deep sea creatures it's important to reflect on how much is still to be learned from our wonderful ocean."

© Crystal Cove State Park The stalk on the fish's head is used to lure prey.

Animal shelter releases 1,000 feral cats onto Chicago streets to solve rat problem

National Post Staff 

One Chicago animal shelter thinks it has an answer to the city’s rat problem — 1,000 feral cats

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© Provided by National Post A picture of a cat a part of the Tree House Humane Society's

Since 2012, the Tree House Humane Society has released 1,000 cats onto Chicago’s streets as a part of their “ Cats at Work ” program.

In pairs of two or three, the feral cats are placed into residential or commercial settings to provide “environmentally friendly rodent control.” In exchange, property and business owners provide the furry pest-controllers with food, water and shelter.

“In most cases, our Cats at Work become beloved members of the family or team and some even have their own Instagram pages,” the shelter’s website says.

Chicago’s problem with rats stretches to 1977, when the city offered a $1 bounty for each rat killed by residents, in a so-called “war on rats.”

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Within two weeks, The New York Times reported that about 550 rats had been killed, with one family killing more than 40 in their own backyard.

In this century, Chicago topped Orkin’s list of “rattiest” U.S. cities for the sixth consecutive time in October.

According to the pest control company, Chicago had the highest number of rodent treatments performed in a year, followed by Los Angeles and New York.

Tree House Humane Society first started the Cats at Work program as an alternative to poisoning rats, reports WGN.

“We’ve had a lot of our clients tell us that before they had cats, they would step outside their house and rats would actually run across their feet,” Sarah Liss, Tree House Humane Society’s program manager, operations and community cats, told WGN .

The cats involved in the program are feral, meaning they aren’t able to thrive in a home or animal shelter. Usually, the shelter safely traps such outdoor cats and spays and neuters them, before returning them to one of their over 1,000 “feral cat colonies.”

However, sometimes the cats cannot be re-integrated into a feral cat colony, like when an abandoned building housing them is demolished. So, they’re put to work.

According to Liss, the cats a part of the program don’t typically eat a lot of rats, but they will kill some rats when they first arrive at a new location. Over time, much less effort is required on the cat’s part.

“They are actually deterring them with their pheromones. That’s enough to keep the rats away,” Liss said to WGN.

'Bucktooth bandits': Police trace stolen lumber to beaver dam

PORCUPINE PLAIN, Sask. — Mounties in east-central Saskatchewan have cracked what they are calling an "extremely Canadian case."

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© Provided by The Canadian Press

RCMP officers from the Porcupine Plain detachment were called to a rural area on Friday to investigate a theft of posts that had been piled on a property for fencing.

The thief was soon revealed to have sharp teeth, fur, and a broad tail.

Const. Conrad Rickards says the posts were found in a nearby waterway and it appears a beaver helped himself to the lumber to build a dam — perhaps with the help of some buddies.

Rickards says there was no sign of the culprit.

He says no charges will be laid.

“Who could really blame these little bucktooth bandits, considering the price of wood these days?”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 11, 2021.

The Canadian Press

Police commission reverses course, orders hearing into case of Edmonton officer 'pressured' into dropping complaint

Jonny Wakefield 

The Edmonton Police Commission has reversed course in the case of an ex-city police constable who claims she was pressured into dropping a complaint against a fellow officer.

© Provided by Edmonton Journal Former EPS constable Katherine Nelson, seen in an undated photo.

In 2018, Katherine Nelson filed a complaint against an Edmonton Police Service (EPS) detective who was assisting another agency in investigating Nelson’s sexual assault complaint against a colleague.


Nelson claims she was convinced to drop the complaint against the detective during an interview with the EPS Professional Standards Branch (PSB).

She later tried to have the complaint reinstated but was shot down by Police Chief Dale McFee and the Edmonton Police Commission, who deemed her attempts “vexatious.”


The independent Law Enforcement Review Board (LERB) reviewed the police commission’s decision and in a February decision ordered commissioners to reconsider.

“Having now had the opportunity to review the entirety of Ms. Nelson’s PSB interview, including the audio/video recordings, the commission concludes that Ms. Nelson was not capable of providing valid informed consent to withdraw her complaint given her mental state at the time of the interview,” the commission wrote in a decision dated April 22.

“She was too emotionally distraught to make the decision to withdraw her complaint, and her verbal withdrawal was therefore not valid.”

Nelson claims she was groped in her hotel room by a fellow officer during a 2016 training session in Green Bay, Wis.

In early 2018, she filed a complaint against EPS Det. Marci Koshowski, who was assisting Green Bay police in the investigation from Edmonton. Nelson claims Koshowski shared text messages from her work phone with investigators in Wisconsin, and that Koshowski suggested those messages were evidence Nelson and the colleague were romantically involved.

On May 23, 2018, Nelson sat for an interview with a PSB detective, during which she agreed to withdraw her complaint against Koshowski. During the interview, Det. Darren Smith became concerned about Nelson’s mental health and asked the EPS crisis team to assess her for committal under the Mental Health Act .

Nelson later said she felt “very pressured and upset and agreed, in some way, to drop the complaint as she felt it was futile.” In December 2018 Nelson wrote to the police service, asking that the complaint be revived because she was in a fragile mental state and never signed an official complaint withdrawal form.

In March, the LERB found Smith did not commit misconduct during the interview. It found Nelson’s claim comparing the interview to an “interrogation” lacked “an air of reality.”

“The evidence in the record … was clear that the appellant stated without prompting that she wished to withdraw her complaint and repeated words to that effect during the interview,” the board wrote.
‘Sniffling, quietly crying, sobbing’

McFee decided Nelson’s complaint against Koshowski had been properly closed, and treated Nelson’s December 2018 letter as a duplication of a previous complaint and thus “vexatious.” He recommended the police commission sign off on the decision — which it did in July 2020.

Nelson appealed to the LERB, which found in her favour.

In particular, the review board noted the commission had not independently reviewed video of the May 2018 interview, which showed Nelson “sniffling, quietly crying, sobbing, sighing, and wiping her face with a tissue.”

“The commission … accepted without question the chief’s conclusion that the first complaint was properly withdrawn,” the review board wrote.

After reviewing the record, commissioners concluded the complaint was not vexatious and should proceed to a disciplinary hearing.

Commissioners added that they found no evidence Smith pressured or coerced Nelson into dropping the complaint. “She simply wasn’t in the proper state of mind that day to be able to validly withdraw her complaint.”

Police commission vice-chair John McDougall dissented, saying there is no evidence Nelson was incapable of consenting to withdrawing her complaint.

“The fact that someone may be emotional, depressed or even contemplating self-harm does not necessarily impact their capacity to provide valid, informed consent,” he wrote, adding there is no requirement that a complaint withdrawal form be signed.

He added it was unfair to Koshowski to have to defend herself against a complaint she believed was withdrawn three years ago.

It is now up to McFee to reinvestigate the complaint and determine whether Koshowski should face a disciplinary hearing.

jwakefield@postmedia.com

twitter.com/jonnywakefield

Editor’s note: This story has been updated with details of a March LERB decision dismissing Katherine Nelson’s complaint against Det. Smith.

Whitmer threatens profit seizure if pipeline keeps operating

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer threatened Tuesday to go after Enbridge's profits from a Great Lakes oil pipeline if the company defies her order to shut it down.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The Democratic governor issued the warning in a letter to the Canadian energy transport company on the eve of a state-imposed deadline to halt operation of Line 5, which moves oil through northern Wisconsin and Michigan to refineries in Ontario. Enbridge repeated its intention to defy Whitmer's demand.

A nearly 4-mile-long (6.4-kilometer-long) section of Line 5 divides into two pipes that cross the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac, which connects Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.

Whitmer, backed by environmentalists and native tribes, says the segment is vulnerable to a catastrophic spill in the cold, swirling channel. She revoked an easement last November that Michigan had granted in 1953 for the pipes to occupy the lake bottom and ordered them closed by May 12.

Enbridge insists the segment is in good condition and says its loss would cause economic damage in both countries, a position shared by the Canadian government, which filed a legal brief Tuesday in support of the company.

In her letter to Vern Yu, Enbridge's executive vice president for liquids pipelines, Whitmer said continued operation of the line after Wednesday “constitutes an intentional trespass" and that the company would do so “at its own risk.”

“If the state prevails in the underlying litigation, Enbridge will face the prospect of having to disgorge to the state all profits it derives from its wrongful use of the easement lands following that date,” Whitmer said.

Enbridge argues that the state has no authority to order the shutdown because the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration oversees interstate pipelines.

“We will not stop operating the pipeline unless we are ordered by a court or our regulator, which we view as highly unlikely,” spokesman Ryan Duffy said. "Line 5 is operating safely, reliably and is in compliance with the law.”

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel filed a lawsuit last fall in support of Whitmer's order, while Enbridge countersued in federal court and wants the matter decided there. A federal judge is considering which court should have jurisdiction.

Nessel’s office said it will continue seeking a shutdown order.

“We are reviewing other remedies that may be available to the state if Enbridge continues to operate the pipelines after the deadline,” spokeswoman Lynsey Mukomel said.

Although U.S. District Judge Janet Neff has ordered mediation, the latest developments suggested the two sides remained deeply entrenched.

Canada's brief, filed in federal court, urged further efforts to reach a settlement.

“Line 5 is essential to our energy security,” said Seamus O'Regan Jr., minister of natural resources. “It heats both Canadian and American homes. It supports both Canadian and American jobs.”

Advocacy groups stepped up the pressure.

In Lansing, labor organizers spread 1,200 hard hats across the grounds of the Michigan Capitol, saying they represented jobs that would be lost without the pipeline. Among them were members of a union representing workers at a refinery in Toledo, Ohio.

“If Line 5 were to shut down, we don’t have alternatives to get our crude oil to the refinery because of where we are and the infrastructure that we have,” said Justin Donley, president of Local 912. "So our refinery would likely shut down.”

The Consumer Energy Alliance, a business coalition, said a shutdown would imperil 33,000 jobs and cause at least $20.8 billion in economic losses in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania. Environmentalists said a spill in the straits would be far more costly.

“The decrepit, deteriorating and dangerous Line 5 pipeline is an ecological and public health tragedy waiting to happen in the world’s largest freshwater lakes,” said Collin O’Mara, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation.

The Bay Mills Indian Community, which has treaty-recognized fishing rights in the Straits of Mackinac, approved a resolution Monday that “banishes” the underwater pipelines from its territory.

“Enbridge’s continued harm to our treaty rights, our environment, our history, our citizens, and our culture, is a prime example of how banishment should be used,” said Whitney Gravelle, president of the tribe's Executive Council. “Banishment is a permanent and final action that is used to protect all that we hold dear.”

Enbridge is seeking state and federal permits to drill a $500 million tunnel beneath the straits to house a new pipeline, which supporters say would remove any threat of a leak. Opponents say the project carries its own environmental risks.

___

Flesher reported from Traverse City, Michigan. AP correspondent Rob Gillies contributed from Toronto. Nichols is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

John Flesher And Anna Liz Nichols, The Associated Press

U.S. border guards regularly engage in racial profiling, 3 Black officers allege in lawsuit

Alexander Panetta 
CBC

© Paul Sancya/The Associated Press Three U.S. border officers stationed at the Blue Water Bridge crossing between Ontario and Michigan have sued the U.S. government alleging racial discrimination at the border. At the same time, the American Civil Liberties Union has…

Allegations of racial profiling at the U.S. border are nothing new: A number of reported incidents have made headlines, including last year's flood of detentions of Iranian-born travellers.

What's more unusual is how those allegations are now coming from inside the agency that oversees the U.S. border — and they're from border officers themselves.

They're contained in a lawsuit against the U.S. government from three officers stationed at a Michigan-Ontario border crossing.


The officers are all Black men, all U.S. military veterans and they're all employed by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency at the Blue Water Bridge crossing between Port Huron, Mich., and Sarnia, Ont.

Their lawsuit coincides with the release of data on thousands of apprehension records that the American Civil Liberties Union says proves blatant racial profiling at the border in Michigan.

"I've seen it with my own two eyes," said Mikal Williams, one of the three officers who filed the lawsuit several weeks ago in the U.S. District Court in eastern Michigan's southern division.

"Travellers of colour [are] receiving more scrutiny."

What the lawsuit alleges

The three officers filed the legal action against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the border agency, and will ask a court to grant exemplary and punitive damages in a dollar amount not yet specified.

Their allegations have not yet been tested in court.

The border agency has not yet filed its response to the lawsuit, and a spokesperson said its policy is not to comment on matters of pending litigation.

The legal complaint recounts several anecdotes in which, the plaintiffs say, their white colleagues were harsher on people of colour entering from Canada than on whites.

One example in the court filing involves 17 U.S. citizens, all Black men, returning home from Toronto in SUVs who were pulled over. "[They] were treated without respect and were insulted ... only because of their race," the lawsuit claims.

Another alleged episode involves a Black family from Texas that accidentally turned onto the bridge toward Canada and was stopped after turning around the car to head back south.

The lawsuit says border officers called the local police department when they noticed the driver lacked a valid licence, which, it says, is not the way similar incidents are handled involving white drivers.

A supervisor then threatened the driver with arrest unless he had someone come to the border to drive his vehicle home — which, again, the lawsuit calls unusual.

"Management went above and beyond in trying to get this person arrested. He had no warrants, no criminal history," Jermaine Broderick, one of the plaintiffs, said in an interview with CBC News.

"There was no reason to try to put this person in jail."

'Stop that Black guy'

Another family was stopped on their way out of the United States. It was an American family on the bridge, leaving the country and heading north toward Canada.

The lawsuit alleges that a supervisor called the family suspicious-looking and says that opinion was based entirely on the fact they were Black people in a luxury vehicle.

"I was directed by a senior officer to 'Stop that Black guy,'" Johnny Grays, a 13-year veteran of the agency with eight years' experience at the Port Huron crossing, said in an interview.

"[He was] referring to a family crossing the border."

Grays said stopping a Black family for no reason traumatized him because he thought of his own children as he saw the frightened kids in the vehicle.

The lawsuit alleges that after that incident, a top-level supervisor at the border told the officers they did a good job.

Asked whether he's seen Canadians being treated unfairly, Grays told CBC News: "Absolutely." He said dark-skinned people, from a wide array of nationalities, tend to get more scrutiny.

"Unjust scrutiny ... whether they be Canadian citizens or U.S. citizens. Brown people in general."

Plaintiff's request to leave border crossing was refused

The legal complaint alleges that the Black employees felt discriminated against at work themselves.

Grays said senior officers kept asking to touch his hair, even after he objected. He said a senior staffer repeatedly asked how he had a job in Port Huron instead of Detroit — which has a much higher Black population.

During Black Lives Matter protests last year, the suit alleges, a colleague joked that Grays could wear civilian clothes and infiltrate the protests.

It alleges that the colleague told Grays: "Tell the protesters your name is Indike Mfufu," using an African-sounding name.

Jermaine Broderick said that as an immigrant from Jamaica who spent 14 years serving in the U.S. military, it bothers him to see this discrimination.

"That [service] is [apparently] not good enough," he said in an interview.

© Rebecca Cook/Reuters Vehicles enter Port Huron, Mich., from Sarnia, Ont., on the Blue Water Bridge, as seen from a U.S. Customs and Border Protection Blackhawk helicopter.

"The shade of my skin colour has subjected me to undue scrutiny."

Broderick said he asked to leave the border crossing but was refused. Grays, after feuding with a supervisor mentioned in the lawsuit, filed a union grievance last year and was subsequently sidelined from his regular work.

"Placed on desk duty," he said in an interview.
Data from a study on Michigan

Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan says it has statistical evidence that travellers are treated differently on the basis of race.

It sued to obtain, and has now released, thousands of federal documents spanning seven years — including more than 13,000 CBP apprehension log records from 2012 to 2019 in Michigan.

A report based on racial data on people detained by the CBP's law enforcement arm, which was released by the ACLU, found that 96.5 per cent of those stopped are listed as having a dark, dark brown, light brown, medium brown, medium or black complexion.

Just 3.5 per cent are listed as having a light or fair complexion.

© Todd Korol/Reuters U.S. Border Patrol, the law enforcement unit of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, is accused in a new ACLU report of stopping people of colour in disproportionate numbers in Michigan.

Those numbers are wildly disproportionate, the ACLU report says, not only to the demographics of the state of Michigan but also to the demographics of people ultimately arrested for crossing illegally.

People of Latin American origin comprise less than 20 per cent of the state's foreign-born population, but 85 per cent of non-citizens apprehended in Michigan were from Latin America, the report says.

Because U.S. border officials exercise jurisdiction within 160 kilometres (100 miles) of any international waterway, they can stop travellers anywhere from the Canadian border to the farthest points in the state.

The ACLU report begins with the story of a lawful U.S. resident, Arnulfo Gomez, who was pulled over for his vehicle's loud exhaust system.

Despite having a valid Michigan driver's licence, he was forced to sit on the side of the road for half an hour while he and his wife were questioned, the report says.

"There was no reason for him to pull us over," the report quotes Gomez as saying. "As soon as he saw we are brown, he was after us."

He was never ticketed for the loud exhaust.