The American Civil Liberties Union is calling on Greyhound to end its practice of routinely giving U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents permission to conduct immigration raids on its buses without warrants. It says the CBP is unlawfully interrogating, detaining and arresting passengers.
The ACLU of Michigan, along with 9 other ACLU state affiliates, sent a letter today to Greyhound stating that "Greyhound's cooperation with CBP is unnecessarily facilitating the violation of its passenger's rights."
According to the ACLU letter, the warrantless raids also are driven by racial and ethnic profiling.
The letter said Greyhound has a Fourth Amendment right to deny the CBP permission to board and search its buses without a warrant.
"Agents can't go into the bus without a warrant or consent or probable cause," said Monica Andrade, a Skadden Legal Fellow at the ACLU of Michigan. "And so they're getting the consent from Greyhound. Greyhound can refuse and should refuse."
"Greyhound should not be in the business of subjecting its passengers to intimidating interrogations, suspicionless searches, warrantless arrests, and the threat of deportation," said Andrade.
In a written statement, Greyhound said it is required to comply with the law. Greyhound also wrote it has "opened a dialogue with the Border Patrol to see if there is anything that can be done to balance the enforcement of federal law with the dignity and privacy of our valued customers."
