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Mimi Hernandez and Ana Suda, the two U.S.-born Latinas who were illegally targeted by an out-of-control federal immigration agent after he eavesdropped on them speaking Spanish while shopping for eggs and milk at a Montana convenience store, are suing Customs and Border Protection (CBP). “Like millions of others,” the American Civil Liberties Union said in a statement, “Ana and Mimi refuse to accept an out-of-control CBP as a fact of life. “
The United States has no official language, not that it matters, because people have a right to speak whatever language they fucking please in their daily lives. But Border Patrol officer Paul O'Neal decided not to mind his own business last May when he was in line behind Ana and Mimi and overheard them speaking Spanish: He demanded to know where they were born and to see their identification.
“He detained them by his patrol car, in full view of neighbors, for an extended period before finally letting them return to their homes and families,” the ACLU continued. “Ana and Mimi walked away from the interaction humiliated and afraid that they might again be stopped, detained, and interrogated at any time. When Ana and Mimi asked why they were being held, he answered unequivocally: Because they were speaking Spanish.”
Suda, a nursing assistant, said the repercussions from the incident continue to this day. She’s been harassed by people since going public, and her 8-year-old daughter is now scared to speak Spanish. “In some ways, it would have just been easier to stay quiet about the incident,” she said. “Maybe life would have gone back to normal, but then I think about my kids. I want them to not only be proud of being bilingual, but I also want them to know that they live in a country where people can’t just be stopped and interrogated based on how they look and sound.”
CBP agents commonly harass families at the border, and under an “obscure law” passed by Congress decades ago, they believe they also have the right to harass people inside the U.S. “Within the 100-mile zone,” the ACLU told Mother Jones last year, “CBP agents can set up permanent and temporary checkpoints and have some ability to circumvent the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures.”
In just one example of this abuse, agents have boarded Greyhound buses to demand papers from riders, just weeks ago pulling a comedian off a bus after he was leaving a gig in Washington state. Mohanad Elshieky said agents called him an “illegal,” accused him of having fake papers, and interrogated him for 20 minutes before letting him go. The agents finally backed off when Elshieky, an asylee from Libya, threatened to call a lawyer.
As the ACLU states, “this kind of abusive CBP activity reflects an out-of-control agency emboldened by a vehemently anti-immigrant administration. From the Muslim Ban to the policy of separating families at the border to the president’s dehumanizing rhetoric about immigrants and communities of color, the Trump administration has made its commitment to xenophobia painfully clear.”
Hernandez and Suda are in search of justice not just for themselves, but for others targeted by this racist administration. Hernandez said that when she was more recently speaking Spanish in public, a Latinx cashier cautioned that that she should be careful, citing the incident. “It’s okay, one of the ladies is me. It’s okay to speak Spanish,” she replied. Suda said that she knows “this fight is bigger than just us. Mimi and I can’t erase what happened that night, but we can do everything in our power to ensure it doesn’t happen to someone else.”