Border Patrol agents in Florida entered a Greyhound bus and asked people to show I.D.
.@CustomsBorder got on a Greyhound bus yesterday at 4:30pm in Fort Lauderdale and asked every passenger for their papers and to prove citizenship. Proof of citizenship is NOT required to ride a bus! For more information about your rights, call our hotline👉 1-888-600-5762 pic.twitter.com/rWJn61o8VP
— FLImmigrantCoalition (@FLImmigrant) January 20, 2018
According Florida Immigrant Coalition (FLIC), who posted the video on Twitter, agents boarded the Greyhound bus on Saturday at around 4:30 p.m. in Fort Lauderdale and asked passengers to provide paperwork proving their citizenship. The group added “Proof of citizenship is NOT required to ride a bus!”
FLIC also asked several organizations, including Greyhound, to comment publicly about this incident, saying “[they should] speak out about how these enforcement sweeps are scaring away customers and violating the constitutional rights of riders. Or does Greyhound believe anyone that rides their buses must prove citizenship?”
FLIC later confirmed that the woman seen in the video was detained by ICE, adding “her daughter-in-law who dropped her off at Greyhound Friday morning has not heard from her since.”
The group has raised concern for the woman’s safety and has questioned whether Greyhound had collaborated with ICE in this raid.
The woman complied with the agents without any issue. She got her things and got off the bus.
More footage from the @CustomsBorder immigration raid in the @GreyhoundBus. It shows the lady who was escorted out of the bus being detained outside. She is currently being held by @ICEgov and her family has not been able to contact her. The deportation force at work. pic.twitter.com/NJC1834f92
— FLImmigrantCoalition (@FLImmigrant) January 22, 2018
“My mother-in-law came to visit me last week,” the woman’s daughter-in-law told FLIC. “She’s my daughter’s grandmother and this was the first time meeting each other. I dropped her off at the Greyhound bus stop Friday morning and never got word of her arrival. I’m very concerned about these officers questioning her without a lawyer present.”
This is not the first time agents have boarded a bus and detained people for not having ID.
CREDIT: komonews.com
Earlier this month, a father and son were also detained aboard a Greyhound bus. Sergio Vera, 18, and his dad Martin Vera were headed from Seattle to Montana when Border Patrol agents stopped them and asked for I.D., according to Komonews.com.
When they failed to provide documentation, they were escorted off the bus. Sergio says that while he is undocumented, he does have Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status. Neither of them have a criminal record.
When Sergio informed officers of his DACA status, he was told it had expired.
“I had DACA. They said it expired. They said Trump already took that away,” Sergio told komonews.com.
He was released hours later after providing a photo of his DACA paperwork and extension notification, which his mother sent to him via text.
Greyhound has yet to release a statement regarding Border Patrol agents entering their buses.
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