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.
iIn her lawsuit, Córdova said she was traveling from San Diego to Phoenix by Greyhound in November 2017 when her bus was pulled over on a highway to allow federal border officers to interrogate passengers. She asserted Greyhound violated state consumer protection law by allegedly consenting to racial profiling.
The Border Patrol said its practice of targeting bus stations and other transportation hubs for human smuggling and drug trafficking is decades-old, although the frequency has increased in response to rising threats.
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