El Paso woman living in Montana detained by Border Patrol for speaking Spanish

[Emn1ty]

On 5/20/2018 at 2:19 PM, sidroc said:

Just out of curiosity, what is the jurisdiction of your version of border patrol? I am utterly ignorant of how it works in the UK especially given how the EU convolutes it. I can tell you from experience (cross border all the time, in Canada right now in fact) that they have basically the same powers near the border as the US patrol does. 

They don't really need it, they live on an island basically.

[FloatingFatMan]

2 hours ago, sidroc said:

A stupid  joke, should never result in court and criminal charges with the possibility of a jail sentence. 

You'll get no disagreement from me there. Unfortunately, in recent years the UK government seems to be catching Super Special Snowflake Disease from the US...

 

[adrynalyne]

3 hours ago, J. X. Maxwell said:

Spanish isn't English. I always wonder if a Spanish speaker is a border jumper.

Aren't you from the land of CCTV, Knife Surrender Bins, and abusive hate speech laws?

Please tell me that was sarcasm. 

[techbeck]

1 hour ago, FloatingFatMan said:

You'll get no disagreement from me there. Unfortunately, in recent years the UK government seems to be catching Super Special Snowflake Disease from the US...

 

Snowflakes did not come from the US.  They are popping up all over the world.  Pretty soon what people are called or how things are said will be so generalized as to confuse the hell out of everyone.

[DConnell Member]

On 5/20/2018 at 1:04 PM, Jim K said:

So, speaking Spanish while buying eggs is "reasonable suspicion" ... awesome.  

Given the majority of "undocumented immigrants" come from Mexico, who should the Border Patrol be checking, the people speaking English with a Boston accent? ? Or a South Joisey accent - that's southern New Jersey by the way, not far in distance from me or in sound from my own speech. And honestly I wouldn't have a problem if BP did feel the need to check me out.

 

I'm curious how you would decide who to look into if you were a member of the BP? What criteria would you use? Or would you simply not do your job for fear of being accused of "racial profiling"?

[Jim K Global Moderator]

3 minutes ago, DConnell said:

Given the majority of "undocumented immigrants" come from Mexico, who should the Border Patrol be checking, the people speaking English with a Boston accent? ? Or a South Joisey accent - that's southern New Jersey by the way, not far in distance from me or in sound from my own speech. And honestly I wouldn't have a problem if BP did feel the need to check me out.

 

I'm curious how you would decide who to look into if you were a member of the BP? What criteria would you use? Or would you simply not do your job for fear of being accused of "racial profiling"?

Certainly wouldn't be asking for their papers just because they were speaking Spanish buying eggs in a convenience store.

[DConnell Member]

5 minutes ago, Jim K said:

Certainly wouldn't be asking for their papers just because they were speaking Spanish buying eggs in a convenience store.

That's not answering the question. You wouldn't base your call on speaking Spanish. Fair enough.

 

But what would you use? How would you determine who to check out? How would you decide who to check out without using language, accent, etc.? How is a Border Patrol agent supposed to do his job without considering language, accent, etc?

[Jim K Global Moderator]

Just now, DConnell said:

That's not answering the question. You wouldn't base your call on speaking Spanish. Fair enough.

 

But what would you use? How would you determine who to check out?

I'm not CBP ... hopefully their training is a little more in depth than "not English, must check out." /shrug

[DConnell Member]

12 minutes ago, Jim K said:

I'm not CBP ... hopefully their training is a little more in depth than "not English, must check out." /shrug

Rereading the article, I really don't see how he did anything out of line. Considering his job is to locate illegal immigrants, it's hard to see how he could do his job without considering the woman's language. Honestly, it seems like she made herself more suspicious by being confrontational. I'd love to hear his side of the story, or read his report of the incident.

 

Once again, how would you do a BP job without considering someone's language? I'd argue that the job by definition requires a degree of "racial profiling". Which is unfortunate, because it leads to incidents like this one (not good for either side) but if you can think of a practical alternative I'd love to hear it.

[techbeck]

I just love how this is getting a lot of news/attention...../s

 

With all the BP agents and the differences in how humans interact with one another...if this is the only incident (or one of a few), then really a non issue and the lady suing should just knock it off.  If she was really  concerned about being treated, she wouldn't sue to bring attention.  She would work with the right groups to try and improve things.  

[DConnell Member]

Just now, techbeck said:

I just love how this is getting a lot of news/attention...../s

 

With all the BP agents and the differences in how humans interact with one another...if this is the only incident (or one of a few), then really a non issue and the lady suing should just knock it off.  If she was really  concerned about being treated, she wouldn't sue to bring attention.  She would work with the right groups to try and improve things.  

She'd make an excellent "false positive" case for the BP to study to reduce further incidents. But as I said above, I'd love to see his report on the incident - I kind of doubt it was just her speaking Spanish that caught his attention. I'd love to hear his side of the story.

[dead.cell]

My family speaks Spanish regularly, especially when cousins come in from Austin and San Antonio. My youngest brother is fluent just as my mom and grandparents, but my other brother and myself just aren't fluent, mostly because of how my mom raised us (I wish we were taught more tbh).

 

That being said, if you're within the 100 mile border where rules are different, I really don't see issue with following such a basic request. If the guy was getting physical or being a dick, you damn right I'd react differently. There's no need to treat people like animals. I don't get how people don't value the lives and safety of their own people. You realize that by protecting the border, you're securing the lives of other immigrants too, right? My neighbors aren't citizens, but they do have proper documentation. They are still protected by our public services, and the day they're treated with disregard, I'll throw a fit.

 

Where's the outrage here anyway? Did they break this woman's arm? No? lol... just pathetic man. This is a slow news day piece at best. All it's meant to do is draw an emotional reaction (and it worked!) with no real conclusion other than to say the border patrol is bad. Imagine that... securing your citizens is bad. The real message here: some jackass in Montana is afraid of Spanish. My reaction? lol, sounds about right. Oh well.

[Jim K Global Moderator]

38 minutes ago, DConnell said:

She'd make an excellent "false positive" case for the BP to study to reduce further incidents. But as I said above, I'd love to see his report on the incident - I kind of doubt it was just her speaking Spanish that caught his attention. I'd love to hear his side of the story.

That I can agree with. Just her speaking Spanish shouldn't have been the sole reason. It'll be interesting to see any other factors (if released). Two sides to every story...

[techbeck]

1 hour ago, DConnell said:

She'd make an excellent "false positive" case for the BP to study to reduce further incidents. But as I said above, I'd love to see his report on the incident - I kind of doubt it was just her speaking Spanish that caught his attention. I'd love to hear his side of the story.

Most likely.

 

I have been treated badly but a bunch of people in my life.  Just rude inconsiderate people., and much much worse than this lady had been treated.  Everyone deals with this and this lady is going to have a ton of issues if she cannot learn to just let things go.  If the officer was a jerk, then she would have reason to make a big deal out of things.

[DocM]

On 5/22/2018 at 12:41 PM, techbeck said:

Snowflakes did not come from the US.  They are popping up all over the world.  Pretty soon what people are called or how things are said will be so generalized as to confuse the hell out of everyone.

 

Reminds me of The Orville episode 7 "Majority Rule." A primer on how this politically correct, likes vs dislikes, nonsense could easily play out. 

[DocM]

On 5/22/2018 at 5:02 PM, techbeck said:

.... Everyone deals with this and this lady is going to have a ton of issues if she cannot learn to just let things go.  

 

They call them snowflakes because they melt down so easily. Rather than make an issue, just flash your license/ID or an addressed bill in her purse and it's over in 10 seconds.