Women sue CBP over Spanish-speaking incident at Havre store

An incident that started with two sisters visiting as they waited in line to buy groceries at a Havre convenience store has turned into a lawsuit demanding damages from the Customs and Border Protection division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Montana, announced Thursday it and the Billings-based law firm Crowley Fleck filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Great Falls on behalf of Ana Suda and Martha "Mimi" Hernandez.

CBP spokesman Jason Givens said Thursday the agency doesn't comment on pending litigation.

Suda and Hernandez are asking for an unspecified amount of money in compensation, punitive damages and a judge's order barring border officials from stopping or detaining anyone based on race, accent or language.

The lawsuit alleges that when U.S. Border Patrol Agent Paul O'Neill detained Suda and Hernandez and questioned them after he heard them speaking Spanish while they were waiting in line to buy milk and eggs, it violated their constitutional rights because he had no legitimate reason to detain the women, and was a violation of equal protection, because the agent singled the women out based on race, relying on their use of Spanish as a justification and proxy for race.

According to the complaint, the agent's supervisor confirmed that French speakers would not be similarly detained.

O'Neill and later his supervisor made it clear through their words and actions that the women weren't free to leave the parking lot, ACLU attorney Alex Rate wrote in the lawsuit.

"Speaking Spanish does not establish reasonable suspicion justifying a stop and detention, much less probable cause for an arrest," Rate wrote.

Suda was born in Texas and moved to Montana with her husband in 2014. Hernandez was born in California and has been living in Montana since 2010. Both are certified nursing assistants.

After the agent questioned Suda and Hernandez for about 35 minutes May 16 - Suda recorded the interview - Suda posted on her Facebook page that "I recorded him admitting that he just stop(ped) us because we (were) speaking Spanish, no other reason. Remember do NOT speak Spanish sounds like is illegal."

In the ACLU press release Thursday, Suda and Hernandez said being detained while trying to buy groceries been humiliating and traumatizing.

Even though the women and their families have lived in Havre for years, they have since been shunned and harassed by other town residents, the release said.

Suda said her daughter is now also afraid to speak Spanish, asking, "Mommy, are you sure we can speak Spanish?" When she speaks with her daughter in Spanish, her child answers her in English, "because she is scared," she added

"This changed our lives, I believe, forever," Suda said in the release

The action is not the first time CBP actions on the Hi-Line have been under close examination.

The Nation sent a correspondent here to report and printed an extensive story in 2005 about the increased presence of Border Patrol agents in the area after 9/11, and concerns about profiling Amtrak passengers.

Border Patrol agents are authorized by law to make warrantless stops within a "reasonable distance" from the border - defined as 100 miles under federal regulations. That broad authority has led to complaints of racial profiling by agents who board buses and trains and stop people at highway checkpoints.

Havre has a 4 percent Hispanic population, according to the U.S. Census.

Agents in the Havre sector made 39 arrests - just .01 percent of the 310,531 arrests nationwide made by Border Patrol agents - in 2017. Of the 39 people arrested, 11 were Mexican.

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Information from Associated Press was used in this article.

Online: Ana Suda and Martha Hernandez vs. United States Customs and Border Protection et al: https://bit.ly/2BAle1g/.

ACLU video about complaint: https://bit.ly/2tnbcf5/.