Comedian says Border Patrol agents pulled him off Greyhound bus to check his status, then told him h

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

Comedian says Border Patrol agents pulled him off Greyhound bus to check his status, then told him his papers were fake

“I explained to them that I was granted asylum here in the United States, and that the work permit they currently hold and the license are impossible to get unless your presence here is legal,” Mohanad Elshieky said.

By Luz Lazo January 28 at 3:06 PM

A Portland, Ore.-based comedian says U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents forced him Sunday to get off a Greyhound bus in Spokane, Wash., and show proof of citizenship. The agents then accused him of having fake documents, comedian Mohanad Elshieky said in a Twitter thread that went viral, reviving outrage about the agency’s practice of boarding intercity buses and demanding identification and proof of citizenship from passengers.

“I explained to them that I was granted asylum here in the United States, and that the work permit they currently hold and the license are impossible to get unless your presence here is legal,” said Elshieky, a native of Libya. The interrogation went on for 20 minutes, he said. “They told me that I was lying and these could pretty much be falsified.”

Mohanad Elshieky
✔
@MohanadElshieky
This morning, ICE agents got on my Greyhound bus that was headed from Spokane to Portland. They walked around before they asked me and few others to step outside and took my documents and interrogated me for around 20 mins then claimed my papers were fake and that I’m “illegal”.

104K
5:08 PM - Jan 27, 2019

Link to tweet

Customs and Border Protection officials have said the agency had been doing such “routine” checks for several years, but civil rights advocates have described the searches as uncommon. A request for comment to CBP on the Spokane incident was not immediately answered.

At the Spokane bus station where Elshieky was asked to get off his Portland-bound bus, officials have described multiple instances in which Border Patrol agents checked passenger identification. A City Council member two years ago said he learned Border Patrol conducts routine bus checks “a couple of times a day.”

-snip-

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2019/01/28/comedian-says-border-patrol-agents-pulled-him-off-greyhound-bus-check-his-status-then-told-him-his-papers-were-fake/

[atreides1]

1. Hiring from the bottom of the barrel

Talk about stupid...is this the best that ICE and CBP can come up with? They sound just like the goons that use to throw bricks through windows of Jewish shops...or harass people at lunch counters!

ICE and CBP are organizations filled with bigots, racists, and led by some of the most xenophobic butt kissers, that can be found anywhere!!!

And just because some of those in ICE and CBP are people of color, doesn't mean they can't be bigots...

[AJT]

2. It's Spokane....a very rightwing area.

[James48]

3. A couple of questions:

1. Was it ICE? Or was it Border Patrol? Two different organizations.

2. What I understand about ICE is their actions questioning without cause. And then making significant mistakes.

Why are both ICE and CPB not given much more extensive training to do their jobs?

We can train military officers in service academies for 4 years, but give CPB and ICE very little in the way of trading to deal with people, descalation, understanding our own immigration statuses, laws, and potential encounters. No language lessons or cultural understand training. We could and should do so much better!

It’s time to dramatically raise the professionalism of our CPB and ICE.

[Eugene]

6. It was CPB although Elshieky said ICE.

This has been an ongoing issue to the point that Greyhound has posted "Your rights & rules on board on its website to advise passengers of their rights when the Border Patrol comes on board.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/11682629

[dem4decades]

4. Wasn't "Your papers please" a Gestapo move?

[Grasswire2]

5. Spokane is not within 100 miles of border.

So how is this legal? The bus was headed to the southwest of Spokane, not toward Canada.

[Going to Jackson]

7. Crap

Quote from article: "...and that the work permit they currently hold and the license are impossible to get unless your presence here is legal,”

Someone should tell these asswipes that the government doesn't "permit" anything. Government can only restrict.

I remember when people said, "If you don't like it, then don't fly." So people did not fly. Then it extended to rail and bus. So, they said, "If you don't like it, then don't ride the bus."

Then it extended to cars, so, of course, they said, "If you don't like it, then don't drive."
Next, it will be, "It you don't like it, then don't walk."