The Greyhound national bus line intends to continue allowing the Border Patrol to ask passengers for their papers, amid claims from the American Civil Liberties Union affiliates that Greyhound should demand a warrant before allowing officers to board its buses, HuffPost reported.
Greyhound officials say they are complying with the law. The ACLU affiliates said that the company has a responsibility to its passengers to demand a warrant, the report said.
"Greyhound is required to comply with the law," a Greyhound spokesperson said in March when the ACLU wrote to the company, asking it to stop allowing the Border Patrol officers on board without a warrant.
Customs and Border Protection, which includes Border Patrol, said that it has the authority to "board and search for aliens in any vessel," within a reasonable distance from the U.S. border and with no warrant, a spokesperson said.
Government regulations set a reasonable distance at up to 100 miles from the border including both the land and coasts, the ACLU reported.
Jordan Wells, an attorney for the New York Civil Liberties Union, disagrees. "The starting place is to not give your consent. If Border Patrol then says, 'You know what, we actually don’t even need their consent, we’re going to just do this stuff,’ that would violate the Constitution," Wells said, HuffPost reported.
The ACLU’s argument is that the checking of documents violates the Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures, HuffPost reported.
Greyhound is not "following the law; they’re facilitating a violation of the law," said Cecilia Wang, the ACLU’s deputy legal director.
The bus line is agreeing to the searches instead of setting up a Fourth Amendment challenge, the report said.
Criminal justice and immigration attorney Ray A. Ybarra Maldonado advised passengers to not reveal personal details, Cronkite News reported.
"It’s always in the person’s best interest to give as little information as possible to federal agents when they don’t have a warrant," Maldonado said.
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