吃瓜大本营

GREAT FALLS, Mont. 鈥� Ana Suda and Martha 鈥淢imi鈥� Hernandez, two American citizens detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for speaking Spanish while shopping at a local convenience store in Havre, Montana, have reached a settlement in their lawsuit against the Trump administration.

The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Montana, and law firm Crowley Fleck PLLP represent the two women.

Suda and Hernandez were simply standing in line waiting to pay for groceries when CBP Agent Paul O鈥橬eill approached them, commented on Hernandez鈥檚 accent, and asked where the women were born. They responded Texas and California, respectively. The agent then ordered them to show identification, and they immediately presented their valid Montana driver鈥檚 licenses.

There was no reason to believe that either woman had violated any law, but O鈥橬eill still detained them in the parking lot. They began filming him, asking him why he targeted them. He said it was because they were 鈥渟peaking Spanish in the store in a state where it鈥檚 predominantly English speaking.鈥� O鈥橬eill offered no other justification for detaining and interrogating them. .

Through the lawsuit, it was revealed that local CBP agents have engaged in a longstanding pattern of abusive seizures and investigations.

Agents from the local administrative CBP unit 鈥� known as the 鈥淗avre Sector鈥� 鈥� have repeatedly targeted Latinx individuals without justification, often based on their race. One such incident led to a published Ninth Circuit opinion holding that CBP agents illegally detained a group of men in Havre in 2006.

In materials produced as a result of the lawsuit, CBP agents admitted they routinely profile non-white individuals in the Havre Sector.

According to a CBP supervisor, 鈥淲e have a lot of agents here and nobody really has much to do.鈥� He recounted seeing 鈥渢wo Mexicans鈥� while off duty in a local mall. He was about to report the two shoppers to CBP so that the agency could send an agent 鈥� only to find that another off-duty CBP agent had already made the same report. For these agents, people are suspicious if they do not fit their profile of a typical resident of Havre 鈥� i.e., if they are not white.

Evidence uncovered in the suit also revealed that O鈥橬eill was a member of the now defunct 鈥淚鈥檓 10-15鈥� Facebook group where CBP agents joked about the deaths of migrants, discussed throwing burritos at Latino members of Congress visiting a detention facility in Texas, and posted a vulgar illustration depicting U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez engaged in oral sex with a detained migrant.

Through the discovery process, O鈥橬eill also handed over a number of inflammatory and racist text messages confirming his anti-immigrant bias. .

鈥淎s if the racism they experienced at the hands of CBP agents were not enough, our clients also bore the brunt of local backlash as a result of coming forward. They both ultimately left Havre for fear of their families鈥� safety,鈥� said Caitlin Borgmann, executive director of the ACLU of Montana.

鈥淲e stood up to the government because speaking Spanish is not a reason to be racially profiled and harassed. I am proud to be bilingual, and I hope that as a result of this case CBP takes a hard look at its policies and practices,鈥� said Suda. 鈥淣o one else should ever have to go through this again.鈥�

鈥淐BP鈥檚 behavior was unconscionable and illegal, but sadly not uncommon. This agency must be held accountable,鈥� said Cody Wofsy, a staff attorney with the ACLU鈥檚 Immigrants鈥� Rights Project.

The settlement involves a monetary sum. Under the Biden administration, the ACLU will continue to hold the federal government and the Department of Homeland Security accountable to the people.

Within the first six months of the new administration, the ACLU wants to see President-elect Biden:

• Ensure that all CBP officials uniformly comply with full Fourth Amendment standards.
• Eliminate all border patrol permanent interior checkpoints.
• Reduce the number of border patrol agents by 50 percent.
• Direct DOJ to revise its 鈥淕uidance Regarding the Use of Race by Federal Law Enforcement Agencies鈥� by prohibiting any discriminatory profiling without exception.