Greyhound advises on Border Patrol
Greyhound Lines is expanding alerts to passengers about their rights should immigration agents board buses to demand identification and proof of citizenship.
The information includes details on how to file civil rights complaints and ways to support a change to federal law about the warrantless stops.
The advisories come amid the holiday travel season and as the country’s largest motor coach operator and other carriers face an ongoing campaign by civil rights groups, labor unions and Democratic lawmakers to push back against recent expanded checks by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials.
Greyhound posted a guide Dec. 13 on its website under “Travel Info” and a section titled “Your rights & rules on board.” It also has posters with advice set to arrive in bus terminals nationwide, a company spokesman said.
A California woman who is a U.S. citizen has asked a California judge in Oakland to order Greyhound to stop allowing agents to board buses, and her lawyers praised the move by the company to get information to passengers. That lawsuit is proceeding.
“Greyhound has taken a step in the right direction, but it has many more miles to go,” Darren J. Robbins, whose San Diego law firm represents Rocío Córdova and her claims on behalf of other passengers in California.
The bus line’s notice in English and Spanish advises customers on a law that allows federal officials to board without a warrant any intercity bus within 100 miles of any international border. The information under a header of “U.S. CBP checks” also advises passengers to contact Congress to change the law, a shift the company has said it would like to see.
The company advises riders that they have “the right to remain silent,” to refuse a search of their belongings and to not answer questions about citizenship or immigration status. They also have the right to refuse signing paperwork without the advice of a lawyer, the company advises.
The notice also advises passengers of their right to record video of immigration officers but cautions that passengers do not have a right to interfere with agents.
Greyhound spokeswoman Crystal Booker said the website change and the posters arriving at terminals were issued to provide increased transparency and out of respect for customers’ dignity, privacy and safety.
Booker said the changes followed “open and honest conversations internally as well as with human right groups as we support changes to current legislation.”
She added: Greyhound is “walking a difficult line between complying with the law and best serving its customers. For this reason, implementation of these actions have taken some time.”
The advisory on passenger protections includes telephone numbers for Greyhound customer assistance and the American Civil Liberties Union, directions for how to file civil rights complaints by mail, fax or email to the Border Patrol’s parent department - the Department of Homeland Security - and links to obtain free legal help through the ACLU, other civil liberties groups and the Justice Department.