Mixed-race family flying from San Jose stopped
Mom of biracial girl says ‘racial profiling’ led to human-trafficking
A Los Angeles woman said she was traveling to her brother’s funeral last month with her 10-year-old biracial daughter, Moira, when they were stopped at the Denver International Airport after a flight attendant reported them as “suspicious.”
Mary MacCarthy, who is White, said she received a phone call 10 days after the incident from Denver police, asking her questions regarding a possible human-trafficking investigation.
“Given that more than 10 days have passed and I have yet to even be contacted by Southwest, I want more than an apology,” MacCarthy said. “I want them to be held accountable for racially profiling my family on the day my 10-year-old African American daughter was going through the worst day of her life.”
The Denver Post was the first to report the incident.
MacCarthy was traveling with her daughter Oct. 22 from Los Angeles to Denver after the death of MacCarthy’s older brother the previous night. MacCarthy said they had a connecting flight in San Jose and were part of the last boarding group. When they got off the plane, they were met by a Southwest Airlines representative and two Denver police officers.
MacCarthy said she thought the police were going to tell her that another family member had died, but then they started speaking to her and Moira separately. MacCarthy said that a Southwest Airlines employee had reported the family as suspicious, but that the police didn’t say anything about human trafficking.
“As the mother of a biracial Black child, I immediately understood what was going on because had I read about this happening to mixed-raced families being targeted and accusations being made,” she said.
MacCarthy said she explained to the officers that they were traveling for a funeral and the police and Southwest representative determined the incident was a misunderstanding and they were let go. The Southwest representative, MacCarthy said, was “very kind and professional” and told the family it had nothing to worry about.
“There’s no point in being kind if you’re going to go on to pursue a humantrafficking investigation after saying it was a misunderstanding,” she said.
A flight attendant had reported the family to police and said that MacCarthy and Moira had boarded “last,” MacCarthy forbade flight crew from talking to her daughter and “demanded” to sit together, and they didn’t talk to each other during the flight, according to MacCarthy’s account and a Denver police report obtained by the Mercury News. MacCarthy said
they got on the plane later because they were in the last boarding group and that she had slept for part of the flight while Moira listened to an audiobook but that “it’s absolutely not true that we were not talking to each other.”
The Denver Police didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
MacCarthy also denied the accusation that she had forbidden airline employees from talking to her daughter and had asked a flight attendant if she could sit with Moira on the plane. MacCarthy said she explained to other passengers that the family was traveling for a funeral and they were accommodating when asked if she and her daughter could sit together.
MacCarthy said she got a call from the Denver Police Department’s human trafficking unit Monday to follow up on a possible human-trafficking case.
“I always carry a copy of my daughter’s birth certificate when I travel, and I take that precaution and it’s a common discussion among mixedrace families that you’re aware of how you may be judged or interpreted,” she said. “When they approached us, I knew to remain calm, and even though they didn’t tell us about their suspicions, I anticipated that at some point something like this might happen.”
Other mixed-race families have recalled similar incidents about being reported as suspected human traffickers.
A White man from Phoenix said he was accused of trafficking his own daughter when he was flying back with his family from Florida and was stopped after getting off a Southwest Airlines flight.
The man said he was with his Chinese adopted daughter and he had been reported as suspicious by a flight attendant.
A Southern California woman was arrested in August after the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department said she posted on social media about a Black
child she saw at Costco and it led to “criminal accusations and racial bias” against the girl’s White parents.
MacCarthy said that this point, she wants Southwest to be held accountable for it actions and that she has received only automated responses after reaching out to the company on Twitter and through email.
MacCarthy said she recorded a three-minute video of her interaction with Denver police on the day she and Moira were stopped and has retained attorneys David Lane and Tyrone Glover of Killmer, Lane and Newman, a Denver law firm.
Colleen Kulas, a receptionist at Killmer, Lane & Newman LLP, confirmed that the firm is representing MacCarthy.
“We were disheartened to learn of this mother’s account when traveling with her daughter,” Southwest Airlines said in a statement. “We are conducting a review of the situation internally, and we will be reaching out to the customer to address her concerns and offer our apologies for her experience traveling with us. Our employees undergo robust training on human trafficking.”
Southwest Airlines announced in 2019 that it was launching online training for all of its employees on identifying potential humantrafficking cases. The airline declined to provide further details on who reported MacCarthy as suspicious and on specific training curriculum or procedures, adding that identifying human-trafficking training is required for front-line employees.
MacCarthy said Moira has been “sad” and “annoyed” since the incident.
“I’m going to have to get her a therapist or a counselor because this is something I’m speaking out on and this is something that as a 10-year-old, she’s trying to process while still grieving her uncle,” she said.