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Two American citizens were forced to identify themselves because they were caught speaking Spanish in a store in Montana. Where is the First Amendment?
I taught citizenship. The test to become a US citizen is currently extremely hard to pass. If these women were not born in the United States, they had to have learned English perfectly and also mastered American history and citizenship (something that our illustrious president definitely has not).
I can understand the stance people have of "this is America and people who live here should learn English". These women, however, clearly had learned English and far more.
They were discriminated against because, although they spoke fluent English, they dared to speak Spanish in public. Picking on them for that is unconstitutional.
"In the small town of Havre, Mont., the Town Pump Convenience Store is about the only shop open after midnight. It was about that time last Wednesday when two friends, Ana Suda, who was out of eggs, and Mimi Hernandez, whose daughter needed milk, walked into the store.
Ms. Suda does not recall what they discussed while they browsed the store, but she knows they conversed in Spanish. That was all it took for a Border Patrol agent also in the store to interject.
'He looked at us and said, "Where are you guys born?" ' Ms. Suda, 37, recalled in an interview on Monday.
Both friends are Mexican-Americans and United States citizens, which they explained to the agent, adding that Ms. Suda was born in El Paso and Ms. Hernandez in Central California. The agent then asked for their identifications.
Shocked by the encounter, Ms. Suda retrieved her cellphone from her car, hit record and confronted the agent as he was relaying their information over a radio inside his sport utility vehicle. They had been racially profiled, Ms. Suda told the agent.
'It had nothing to do with that,' the officer, who identified himself as Agent O’Neal, responded in the cellphone video. 'It’s the fact that it has to do with you guys speaking Spanish in the store in a state where it’s predominantly English-speaking.'”
Link to article...https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/21/us/montana-border-patrol-agents-spanish-speaking.html
I taught citizenship. The test to become a US citizen is currently extremely hard to pass. If these women were not born in the United States, they had to have learned English perfectly and also mastered American history and citizenship (something that our illustrious president definitely has not).
I can understand the stance people have of "this is America and people who live here should learn English". These women, however, clearly had learned English and far more.
They were discriminated against because, although they spoke fluent English, they dared to speak Spanish in public. Picking on them for that is unconstitutional.
"In the small town of Havre, Mont., the Town Pump Convenience Store is about the only shop open after midnight. It was about that time last Wednesday when two friends, Ana Suda, who was out of eggs, and Mimi Hernandez, whose daughter needed milk, walked into the store.
Ms. Suda does not recall what they discussed while they browsed the store, but she knows they conversed in Spanish. That was all it took for a Border Patrol agent also in the store to interject.
'He looked at us and said, "Where are you guys born?" ' Ms. Suda, 37, recalled in an interview on Monday.
Both friends are Mexican-Americans and United States citizens, which they explained to the agent, adding that Ms. Suda was born in El Paso and Ms. Hernandez in Central California. The agent then asked for their identifications.
Shocked by the encounter, Ms. Suda retrieved her cellphone from her car, hit record and confronted the agent as he was relaying their information over a radio inside his sport utility vehicle. They had been racially profiled, Ms. Suda told the agent.
'It had nothing to do with that,' the officer, who identified himself as Agent O’Neal, responded in the cellphone video. 'It’s the fact that it has to do with you guys speaking Spanish in the store in a state where it’s predominantly English-speaking.'”
Link to article...https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/21/us/montana-border-patrol-agents-spanish-speaking.html
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