Outrageous cell phone footage released last week shows Border Patrol officers boarding a Greyhound bus, questioning customers and asking for ID. 

Passengers of the Fort Lauderdale bus reported that the driver announced a “routine” security checkpoint then allowed two uniformed officers to inspect identifications. One woman on the bus was later arrested and turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation -- all because of Greyhound’s deal with Border Patrol. 

Despite claiming otherwise, Greyhound is under no legal obligation to allow Border Patrol agents to conduct searches on its private property without an official warrant. So why is the bus company voluntarily working with Border Patrol to ensnare immigrants trying to go about their lives peacefully? 

The footage has been viewed over 2 million times online, prompting widespread outrage and questions about the legality of the search. But Isabel Sousa-Rodriguez of the Florida Immigration Coalition said that for years, Greyhound has been “notorious” for allowing immigration agents onto buses. As early as 2005, the Associated Press reported that a Greyhound internal policy threatened to fire employees who sold tickets to undocumented immigrants. 

In a statement, Greyhound said they had to comply with federal rules that give Border Patrol power to interrogate or arrest anyone they have “reason to believe” is in the country illegally within 100 miles of any U.S. border. But even then, the ACLU says that authorities must have “reasonable suspicion” of an immigration violation to conduct a search -- something hard to obtain when you’re peering into a bus.  

Greyhound needs to take the rights of its customers seriously and stop allowing Border Patrol to question and intimidate passengers. This video is evidence of a larger issue -- Greyhound is complicit in the racial profiling and deportation of immigrant customers. In the face of vitriolic anti-immigrant rhetoric and policy from the Trump Administration, it’s time we all speak up to hold Greyhound accountable to making a change.