Black Woman Bus Passenger Shuts Down Racist Border Patrol Agents Illegally Demanding Documentation

[Amaryllis]

From June 9, but I didn't see it and this is inspiring as well as informative:
https://newsone.com/3807917/racist-border-patrol-tiana-smalls/

How A Black Woman Shut Down Racist Border Patrol Agents
Tiana Smalls' story has gone viral.
By Parker Riley

Posted June 9, 2018

When possible, we all have to find ways to resist. Whether it is filming police assaulting an unarmed man, peacefully protesting by kneeling, or what a young woman did on a Greyhound bus — shutting down some clearly racist border patrol agents.

On June 7, Tiana Smalls wrote on her Facebook that she was on a Greyhound bus from Bakersfield, California to Las Vegas, Nevada. When crossing the state line over to Nevada, the bus driver made an announcement, “We are being boarded by Border Patrol. Please be prepared to show your documentation upon request.”

“Show us your documentation” sounds very much like “Show us your papers” — Tiana was not here for it. According to her, she stood up loudly and said, “This a violation of your Fourth Amendment rights. You don’t have to show them sh*t. This is illegal. We are We are not within 100 miles of an international border so that (sic) have no authority to ask you for anything. Tell them to f*ck off!”

Using Google, she translated what she said to the people on the bus who only understood Spanish. As the border agents got on the bus, they said they were about to ask people for “documentation. Smith says she stood up and yelled, “I’m not showing you sh*t! I’m not driving this bus, so you have no right to ask me for anything! And the rest of you guys don’t have to show them anything, either! This is harassment and racial profiling! Don’t show them a goddamn thing! We are not within 100 miles of a border so they have no legal right or jurisdiction here! Google it.”

Smith said the agents looked “exasperated” and eventually got off the bus. Pretty damn epic. Read her whole full post below, which has gone viral.

Smalls has received tons of media requests from the post. She wrote on her Facebook, “I didn’t do what I did, or share it for accolades or thanks. I appreciate the support, but I’m just little old me. All I wanted to do was let people know that that can and should speak up… even if that means risking being arrested.” She also added, “If you want to thank me, speak up the next time you see someone being discriminated against, just speak up. That’s all I want. I appreciate the love , but please, just pay it forward.”

LInk for her FB post:
https://www.facebook.com/tiana.daniels2/posts/10156424031421382

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. I like her reply to people, at the bottom.

Sounds like a very cool lady.

[onetexan]

2. KUDOS to ms. smalls for knowing and defending her and her fellow passengers rights

[EndGOPPropaganda]

3. An average woman and an American hero

#useyourvoice


So good.

[msongs]

4. good for her claiming her rights nt

[TNNurse]

5. A good citizen, a good person, a great young lady.

[StTimofEdenRoc]

6. They did take an oath to uphold the constitution? As we slide slowly into fascism.

Or did California leave the union?

[Stonepounder]

7. Good for her! But...

I have not been able to find anything that supports her assertion that ICE can only demand 'papers please' within 100 miles of an international border. Does anyone know what law she is talking about?

[kag]

9. Not sure if this is what you're looking for.

But the ACLU has some info on the "100-mile" jurisdiction for border-patrol.

https://www.aclu.org/other/constitution-100-mile-border-zone

[Stonepounder]

12. That's exactly what I was looking for. I guess my GOOGLE queries weren't written correctly.

Thanks a bunch!

[pazzyanne]

17. Thank you for this information.

It sheds a lot of light on scope of boarder agents authority.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

10. I'm under the impression that it isn't legal anywhere to demand

papers, but I may well be wrong about that. But more to the point, in this case, a bus traveling from Bakersfield CA to Las Vegas NV is a long way from a border, and so ICE has no fucking business with that bus.

Heck, when I go from Tucson AZ to Nogales, Sonora, it bothers me quite a bit that the border patrol checkpoint is a good twenty miles north of the border. Why not about five miles north? Of course, they just take one look at my all-Anglo appearance and just wave me on, but it's still annoying.

[HeiressofBickworth]

15. Judging you based on your all-Anglo appearance

is still racial profiling even if they are just waving you on.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

18. Yep. I am very aware of my white privilege.

And my old white lady privilege.

I never get traffic tickets any more. About once every other year I get stopped for speeding or not stopping properly at a stop sign, and even though I'm as polite and deferential as I'm sure everyone reading this always is, I'm old enough that I look like Mom, or more likely Grandma, maybe even Great-Grandma, especially here in New Mexico where they tend to reproduce rather young. I am yet to be stopped by a man willing to ticket Grandma, for which I'm grateful.

[Kali]

19. No, they need to do what their fucking name says

and patrol the BORDER, not harass citizens 20 miles in, 100 miles in, or even 5 miles in. if all these agents would just line up along the border there would be no need for any of this shit and certainly not a damn wall!










sorry, I get worked up about the BP clowns.

[shanny]

27. It wasn't ICE, it was the Border Patrol.

And yes, their authority is limited to within 100 miles of the borders/oceans.

[kag]

8. Now THAT is a PATRIOT!

Last edited Thu Jun 14, 2018, 02:50 AM - Edit history (1)

And all she wants in return is for us to do the same thing when we see this kind of discrimination happening. She needs to run for office!

[AllaN01Bear]

13. bravo

[IronLionZion]

14. They're coming for whites next

they have already detained US citizens and American-born US citizens who are brown or black. When they come for white liberals, you would have seen it coming a mile away and you'll still feel completely shocked and can't believe it's happening to you.

They don't care about your documentation.

[NoMoreRepugs]

25. This.

[Thekaspervote]

16. This was posted a few days back... it deserves another 20 posts- let's keep it in the forefront

[DFW]

20. Border police don't restrict their stupidity to POC on busses, either

Two times out of the last three, the have detained my wife, a blonde, blue-eyed German citizen with no record of anything beyond a three year old parking violation in the German town of Velbert (it was €10, and it was paid immediately, when trying to enter the USA (accompanied by me, a US citizen) at the Atlanta airport.

The first time, they said she had spent too much time in the USA, even though her departure ticket was clearly within the legal limit of visa-free stay. We were sent to a detention area, and made to stew for an hour. Finally, she was called before three supervisors. They took all of thirty seconds to say, OK, you're fine, you're free to go.

The second time, the CBP officer, clearly an immigrant, himself, from his accent, detained her, claiming her fingerprints didn't match. Her protestations that her hands had the same fingers on them that they had the last hundred times she entered the USA were to no avail. Once again, to the detention area. Almost an hour later, she gets called by a supervisor. This time, he rolled his eyes (maybe the guy who detained her had a history of this), and it took him all of 10 seconds to say, "you're fine, you can go."

Now, we have also had sensible immigration officers who had enough experience to know that my wife clearly presented no danger to the security of the USA, and saw she had enough stamps in her passport to realize that she went back and forth several times a year. But the fact that not ALL our immigration officers get the training to act sensibly before they start throwing their weight around is a national scandal. This is without even getting into the practice of sending armed goons to board buses in the middle of the continental USA for no other reason than to harass people. Do they think some Mexican drug cartel leader having business in Las Vegas is going to board a bus from L.A. to get there?

[Ron Obvious]

21. TSA is always a nightmare in the US

I wonder just how much it hurts the tourism industry that visitors get treated like potential criminals on arrival. I wonder if anyone has any numbers on that -- it might change policy.

Arriving anywhere in Europe it's basically, show your passport, good morning, walk your suitcase through "nothing to declare" and off you go. Arriving in the US is like being processed into jail by comparison.

Oh, and waiting an hour or more in line is the norm, at least at SeaTac.

[DFW]

24. Yes, I put out my comment on the TSA a few years back

Here it is:

[IronLionZion]

26. I suspect they choose one white person who looks like they won't put up a fight

and give them the brown treatment just so they can claim they're not racist.

There's nothing I can do about the idiotic TSA randomly selecting me every single time without fail. But my family got CBP global entry to make it easier to get back into the US by using the machines. Idiotic CBP employees try to physically block us from walking up to the machines while whitesplaining to us that we can't possibly be US citizens.

But in general whether it's in airports or while using taxis or applying for jobs or anything else, the people who refuse to believe Americans can be non-white are immigrants. The US citizenship test needs to add questions about diversity and legal consequences for racial discrimination.

[DFW]

28. I think it's just ignorance.

The immigrant who told my wife she had mismatching fingerprints was a black guy, probably from the Dutch Caribbean (Aruba, Sint Maarten, Curaçao) from his accent and name tag. I don't think he was singling out a token European. He did not return to his post after depositing us at the detention area. He went off and didn't come back for 20 minutes. He probably just wanted a coffee break and needed an excuse to leave his booth. My wife was the right excuse at the right time.

As for the TSA, I was in Boston once, and after the standard security check, some guy in a TSA uniform came up to me and said I had been selected for a "random special security check." Right. Guy traveling alone with dark(er) features and a beard, I must REALLY have looked like a Taliban commando, right? But all you have to do is know the mentality of the idiots you are dealing with. So, I put on my best Southern Boot Camp Drill Sergeant accent, stood at attention, and said authoritatively, "alright sir, let's get this done." He was expecting me to object, or at least ask why. The last thing he expected was a military-type voice practically commanding him to hurry up and get to frisking me. He was so startled that he ran a hand loosely up my right side (took less than five seconds), said, "thank you," and got the hell outta there. I managed to keep a straight face for long enough for him to be gone before I broke into a grin.

[niyad]

22. and, natuarlly, we have the one idiot who claims the story is fake, since he "talked to

several drivers, who swore it never happened".

[geardaddy]

23. So, Nevada now has border control for its state?

SMDH. Good for Tiana Smalls! She's a fucking hero!

[Honeycombe8]

29. This is the hardest thing to do, for people like me.

I was raised to respect authority. I naturally comply to what seem to be normal requests. I assume authority figures have a right, or they wouldn't ask.

But times have changed. I wouldn't have known the border patrol didn't have a right to ask for documentation. But if I had known, I will have to pledge to be strong & speak up and not comply, if I don't have to.

This is different from law enforcement stopping you when you're driving. It is the law that you have to show law enforcement your identification and papers regarding your car & insurance, if asked. But when there's no law providing for that right for them to ask, such as when walking down a street, we need to speak up, speak out, and refuse to comply.

To go along is to imply you agree. And it makes it harder for others not to comply.

These are not the times that I grew up in. We are bordering on Germany in the 1930s. We can't be silent and tacitly agree to offenses against our rights and the rights of others.

That young woman gave us an excellent example of what to do. This is the hardest thing of all to do, for people like me. But I will have to become that person. Can I do it? I think I can.

[MyOwnPeace]

30. Is THIS what we are about to become?

This MUST be stopped!

Get Out The Vote - they've GOT TO GO!!!

[red dog 1]

31. K&R...Thanks for posting

Tiana Smalls sounds like a decent, smart, courageous American,

Too bad she's not sitting in the Oval Office instead of that crooked, ignorant, lying, cowardly, racist POS who calls himself "president"