Border Patrol agents arrest woman on board a Greyhound bus

A cellphone video shot onboard a Greyhound bus last week has sparked outrage after showing Border Patrol agents arresting a grandmother who had overstayed her tourist visa – and then ordering all the other passengers to produce proofs of citizenship.

The footage was taken at a bus stop in Fort Lauderdale at around 4.30pm on Friday when two uniformed Border Patrol agents boarded a Greyhound bus traveling from Orlando to Miami and announced that they would be performing a ‘routine inspection.’

As they walked up and down the aisle, the agents demanded that passengers produce a US identification or a passport with a stamp of entrance, according to Raquel Quesada, who told CBS4 she was on the bus.    

This Jamaican woman named Beverly was arrested on Friday by Border Patrol agents during a ‘routine inspection’ of passengers’ citizenship papers on a Greyhound bus in Florida

The woman was found to have overstayed her tourist visa

Family say she had visited her granddaughter for the first time in Virginia and was en route to a friend's house in Miami

The woman was found to have overstayed her tourist visa. Family say she had visited her granddaughter for the first time in Virginia and was en route to a friend’s house in Miami

Viral: The Florida Immigrant Coalition (FLIC) shared this 2-minute cellphone video on Twitter, where it has been viewed 2.35million times

Viral: The Florida Immigrant Coalition (FLIC) shared this 2-minute cellphone video on Twitter, where it has been viewed 2.35million times

The document check revealed that a Jamaican woman named Beverly, who was traveling to Miami after spending time with her granddaughter in Virginia, had overstayed her tourist visa. 

The woman, dressed in a beanie and a puffer jacket, is seen in the two-minute video briefly talking to the officers before being escorted off the bus with her luggage in tow.

Beverly was later arrested and transported to a Border Patrol station before being taken into the custody of the US Immigration and Custom Enforcement for removal proceedings.

The Florida Immigrant Coalition (FLIC) shared the video on Twitter, where it has been viewed 2.35million times as of Tuesday afternoon.

Beverly was transported to a Border Patrol station before being taken into the custody of the US Immigration and Custom Enforcement for removal proceedings

Beverly was transported to a Border Patrol station before being taken into the custody of the US Immigration and Custom Enforcement for removal proceedings

The FLIC, which bills itself as ‘a stateside coalition of organizations working for the fair treatment of all people, including immigrants,’ wrote in a tweet accompanying the video: proof of citizenship is NOT required to ride a bus!’

WHAT THE LAW SAYS ABOUT BORDER PATROL’S AUTHORITY

US Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Border Patrol is responsible for securing the US border between the ports of entry.

To do this, they use a layered approach that includes patrolling the border itself, (including the use of electronic surveillance devices), patrolling nearby areas and neighborhoods where illegal immigrants can quickly fade into the general population, and conducting checkpoints – both stationary and temporary.

The authority for this is based on the Immigration and Nationality Act 287(a)(3) and copied in 8 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 287 (a)(3), which states that Immigration Officers, without a warrant, may “within a reasonable distance from any external boundary of the United States…board and search for aliens in any vessel within the territorial waters of the United States and any railcar, aircraft, conveyance, or vehicle. 8 CFR 287 (a)(1) defines reasonable distance as 100 air miles from the border.

Border Patrol checkpoints do not give Border Patrol Agents carte blanche to automatically search persons and their vehicles, other then in the manner described above. In order to conduct a legal search under the Fourth Amendment, the agents must develop particularly probable cause to conduct a lawful search. Probable cause can be developed from agent observations, records checks, non-intrusive canine sniffs and other established means. Motorist’s may consent to a search, but are not required to do so. 

 

A statement posted on the group’s site read: ‘Passengers were shocked that their citizenship would be questioned and proof of citizenship was being required for a local bus route from Orlando to south Florida, arguing that they did not carry those documents because their travels did not include the crossing of any federal borders.’ 

Border Patrol on Tuesday released a statement to the Miami Herald confirming the incident in Fort Lauderdale, saying that its agents were performing an ‘immigration inspection’ when they identified a passenger who was ‘illegally residing in the United States.’

Isabel Sousa-Rodriguez, membership director with the Florida Immigration Coalition, told the Washington Post that the woman, a Jamaican native in her 60s, was planning to stay with a friend in Florida after visiting her daughter-in-law and grandchild in Virginia.

The woman is currently being held at the Broward Transitional Center in Pompano Beach, Florida, and her family have been unable to contact her from the time of her arrest.

‘My mother-in-law came to visit me last week,’ the woman’s daughter-in-law said in a statement to 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.’

The organization also shared the cellphone video from the bus on its Facebook page, calling on Greyhound ‘to stand up for its passengers.’

‘Incidents like these erode public trust in police and authority figures whose job is to serve and protect our communities,’ stated Sousa-Rodriguez. ‘Without an official judicial warrant, border patrol agents should not be permitted to board the private property of the Greyhound corporation to harass its customers and violate their civil liberties.

‘Floridians deserve to ride a bus in peace without having to carry a birth certificate or passport to go to Disney world, visit family, or commute for work.’

Setting the record straight: Customs and Border Patrol sent out this tweet on Tuesday, without directly referencing the Greyhound incident

Setting the record straight: Customs and Border Patrol sent out this tweet on Tuesday, without directly referencing the Greyhound incident

But the bus company explained in a statement that it is required to comply with all laws and to cooperate with law enforcement agencies whenever officers seek to board its vehicles.

‘Unfortunately, even routine transportation checks negatively impact our operations and some customers directly,’ Greyhound stated.

After facing backlash from pro-immigration and civil rights advocates accusing Border Patrol agents of overstepping their authority by conducting citizenship inspections, Customs and Border Patrol sent out a tweet on Tuesday, without directly referencing the Greyhound incident, in an apparent attempt to set the record straight.

‘Fact: Immigration law states that Immigration Officers, without a warrant, may “within a reasonable distance from any external boundary of the US…board and search for aliens in any vessel, rail car, aircraft, conveyance, or vehicle,”’ the message read.

 



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