American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) affiliates California, Washington, Vermont, New York, New Hampshire, Michigan, Florida, Maine, Texas and Arizona are calling on Greyhound CEO Dave Leach to bar Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents from boarding busses to demand the immigration status from their passengers:
"Greyhound recently has said that the company believes it is 'required' to 'cooperate with [CBP] if they ask to board our buses,'" the ACLU letter reads. "We are aware of no such requirement. Rather, Greyhound has a Fourth Amendment right to deny CBP permission to board and search its buses without a judicial warrant. For the following reasons, we urge Greyhound to change its policy and to refuse CBP permission to conduct invasive bus raids without a warrant."
Border Patrol agents have been doing this for years in multiple states, most recently in a viral video showing agents questioning and detaining a black woman of Caribbean descent in Florida. And because of the “100 mile zone” that affects two-thirds of Americans, immigration agents say they have the right to do this. But, the ACLU continues, "the Fourth Amendment protects businesses as well as individuals, and we believe Greyhound has the Fourth Amendment right to refuse consent to board its buses”:
“Greyhound is in the business of transporting its passengers safely from place to place. It should not be in the business of subjecting its passengers to intimidating interrogations, suspicion-less searches, warrantless arrests, and the threat of deportation.”
Or subjecting passengers to racial profiling. Last month, agents stopped a Latino man waiting for a Greyhound bus in Indio because his “shoes looked suspicious,” like a recent border crosser, according to an ACLU attorney. He’s now in a detention facility. “We urge Greyhound to change its practices and policies to refuse CBP consent to board its buses without a warrant,” the ACLU letter states, “except when legally required at the physical border or its equivalent."