Two women who say they were detained by a Border Patrol agent in Montana for speaking Spanish filed a lawsuit Thursday, saying their constitutional rights were violated.
They asked a judge to declare it illegal to use “race, accent and language” as reasons to be able to detain someone.
The women, Ana Suda and Martha Hernandez, both U.S. citizens, said Agent Paul O’Neal overheard them conversing at a convenience store in Spanish and demanded to see their identification, speculating that they may have been in the country illegally.
They videotaped part of the interaction in which the agent admitted the language difference was the reason.
“I came in here and saw that you guys are speaking Spanish, which is very unheard of up here,” the agent says.
At the time a Customs and Border Protection official said they were looking into the incident to see if proper procedures were followed.
A spokesman declined Thursday to comment on the lawsuit, citing policy.
“However, lack of comment should not be construed as agreement or stipulation with any of the allegations,” spokesman Jason Givens said.
The women say Havre, the town where the encounter took place, has a strong Latin American community including a Spanish-language radio show, challenging the agent’s claims that the language is rare in the area.
Havre is about 30 miles from the U.S.-Canada border.
Border Patrol agents have enforcement powers within 100 miles of the border.
But civil liberties advocates say race or ethnicity is not enough for an agent to claim reasonable suspicion, which is necessary to perform a stop, search or detention.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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