Border Patrol Agent Holds Two U.S. Citizens for Speaking Spanish

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  • Source: www.youtube.com / Via: www.youtube.com

  • A video taken by a Montana woman shows a Border Patrol officer question her and her friend for speaking Spanish at a gas station — ignoring the fact that they are American citizens.

    Ana Suda and Mimi Hernandez were buying eggs and milk at a gas station, when they were stopped by a Border Patrol agent in Havre, Montana. Ana Suda told NBC News: “He asked us where we were born, so I looked at him and I said, ‘Are you serious? He said, ‘I’m very serious.'”That’s when the women took out their phones, and proceeded to record the conversation, accusing the Border Patrol of racial profiling.

    Ana Suda and Mimi Hernandez waited for forty minutes as the Border Patrol agent went through their papers, and were eventually released because they were indeed American citizens. As Suda told Don Lemon on CNN, she was born in El Paso, Texas and her friend, in El Centro, CA.

    And here’s a very, very important part of this entire thing. Speaking Spanish is not illegal, and it shouldn’t be illegal — obviously. It seems more and more people, however, feel entitled to harass people of color and Spanish speakers. This isn’t necessarily new, but it could be that our current laws against minorities and immigration and our country’s divisiveness around these issues is encouraging racists to come out of the woodwork. Plus, the rise of smartphones and social media allows these horrible moments to be recorded and go viral quickly.

    America is meant to be the land of the free. Do we really want to live in a country that has a police force that regularly harasses people for speaking another language, or being non-white?

    As you can imagine, this incident has sparked a lot of discussion on social media.

  • Source: twitter.com / Via: twitter.com

  • Source: twitter.com / Via: twitter.com

  • Source: twitter.com / Via: twitter.com

  • What do you think? Was the border patrol officer just doing his job, or is this an unjust example of racial profiling? Let us know in the comments.

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