Shane Parmely is a middle school teacher in the San Diego public schools. She was driving home and was stopped at a checkpoint by the Border Patrol. The officer asked her if she was a citizen. She refused to answer. She said, “If this a border crossing?” He said no. He repeated the question. She refused to answer. She said that friends and students who were brown were stopped frequently, and she didn’t think it was right. She knew that as a white woman, all she had to do was say “yes,” and she would be waved through. She decided to take a stand. The officers (now there were two) said they were just doing their job. See the video here.
The video has gone viral. We are not accustomed to people standing up and questioning authority. It is easier to be a sheep.
“Citizens?” an agent asked her as she drove up to the checkpoint.
“Are we crossing a border?” Parmely responded.
“No. Are you United States citizens?” he repeated.
“Are we crossing a border?” Parmely repeated. “I’ve never been asked if I’m a citizen before when I’m traveling down the road.”
As the agent continued to repeat his question, Parmely told him that he could ask her the question, but she didn’t have to answer.
“You are required to answer an immigration question,” the agent said. “You are not required to answer any other questions.”
When Parmely refused to answer the question, the agent told her that she was being detained for an immigration inspection.
“So if I just come through and say, ‘Yes, I’m a citizen,’ I can just go ahead?” Parmely asked.
“If the agent is justified by the answer, then yes,” the agent responded.
“So if I have an accent, and I’m brown, can I just say, ‘Yes,’ and go ahead or do I have to prove it?” she asked. “I have a bunch of teacher friends who are sick of their kids being discriminated against.”
“Ok, I’m not discriminating against anybody,” the agent said.
Good civics lesson, Shane.
Since when are people stopped on an American highway and questioned about their citizenship?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
So happy you posted this. It put a big smile on my face when I first read about this.
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This is a preview of a country run by ALEC and Trumpists.
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You are aware that Obama opened the door by deporting record numbers, right?
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Yes, we are ALL aware of it.
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I dunno, Greg B. Some people seem to think that history began with Trump. He’s only the logical outcome of what we’ve had at least since Raygun (and before, I suppose, but I was either too little or not around at all before that) regardless of which party has held power.
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Welcome to the new America. My second cousin is dark skin and fluent in Spainish. Goes to Mexico and always even 10 years ago carried his American passport. Terrible if you don’t have one now!
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Why when I leave a comment for the first time. Says duplicate???????
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Apparently they do this within 100 miles of the border.
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I’ve been across that Border Patrol stop north of San Diego many times. I’m white, and when I’m driving by myself or with white friends, they wave me through, no questions asked. When I have black — not Latino, black — friends in my car, they stop me and ask lots of questions, and sometimes search my car thoroughly. Not sure what that has to do with patrolling the border.
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Big SMILE!
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My (ethnic) Chinese ex-wife is an American citizen. She lives in El Paso, Texas. When she is in the vicinity of the international border, she is often queried by border patrol officers, and she always answers truthfully. She must produce identification (passport) when crossing the international border. So what?
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So what? Seriously? What country do you think you live in? Nazi Germany? You think it’s okay to make people show their papers to prove they have a right to exist? People like you are the reason we can’t even pretend to be a free country any more. Wouldn’t you be happier in North Korea?
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Yes, exactly, Dienne.
It’s one thing to show your passport when actually crossing the border.
But being queried by border patrol when she is just “in the vicinity of” the border?
I’m sorry, but this is absolutely not acceptable.
Today, they can apparently do this within 100 miles of the border.
Tomorrow, who knows? How about within 3,000 miles of the border? (Any border.)
That would pretty much cover the whole country.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MD6oDnm43HA
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I live in the USA. There is no “Right to Anonymity”. I have lived all over the world, Germany, France, Mozambique, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. I have visited about 40 other nations. In all of these nations, (except for the USA), all people whether citizens or aliens or visitors, are required to carry identification papers when away from home. In Saudi Arabia, I had to carry both an identity card and a work permit (brown card).
It is not only “okay”, but it should be mandatory, for all people to have identification cards on them, and to produce them, when law enforcement/immigration has “probable cause” to see them.
I have not lived in North Korea, and I do not care to. I have lived in a communist country, The People’s Republic of Mozambique. I had to carry both an identity card, and a diplomatic identity card, whenever I was away from home.
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Police can ask for a drivers license with no problem. I have never been stopped to ask for proof of citizenship
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Incidentally, Charles, do you typically carry around your passport? I don’t. In fact, I don’t carry around anything that would prove that I’m a citizen. I don’t think most people do. In fact, I don’t think most people have passports. Why should people who “look Mexican” or “look Asian” or whatever have to carry theirs?
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Dienne is right. In free countries, we don’t have to carry around proof of who we are. When I travel in Europe, I always leave my passport in the hotel room.
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I have a passport, but I do not carry it with me, unless I am traveling internationally. Not all Americans have passports, I did not get one until I was 28.
All people in this country, should be able to prove their citizenship, or legal alien status, when required to do so, upon probable cause by law enforcement or immigration authorities.
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@Greg B: You are mistaken. I lived in Germany for two years, and France for one year. These are “free” countries, functioning constitutional republics. In these countries, all citizens and aliens must carry identification, and present proper documents to law enforcement, when required to do so, upon probable cause.
When I am visiting a foreign country, I always leave my passport in the hotel safe, and I do not carry it with me. However, I always carry government-issued photo ID with me, and a photocopy of the first page of my US passport.
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Charles, we live in America, remember. JFK write a book called “A Nation of Immigrants.”
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Imagine people like you come to Japan and learn that local police are stopping you on the street for ID. And you complain of J-cops abusive practice that threatens you to detain and fine $3,000 for not carrying a passport or resident card. Oh, never mind some Americans don’t really care the plight of their fellow countrymen on the other side of continent.
A lesson indifference and ignorance put people in a lower level of plateau where clueless J-cops, anime otaku Americans, and rightwing xenophobic locals reside.
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Come on Charles, I have read your posts. You are a fair man. This is an issue of civil liberties. The So What is our freedom to move about freely. It is freedom from fear, one of the four freedoms enumerated by Franklin Roosevelt so many years ago when he was trying to explain why we are who we are.
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@Ray: I am glad that you think I am a fair man. It is not an issue of civil liberties. Being able to prove your legal status to law enforcement and/or immigration-border patrol, is no impingement on your liberties. There is no right to anonymity, even liberal attorney Alan Dershowitz has written on this topic.
Nearly every advanced nation on earth, has identification requirements. As a legal citizen or legal alien, persons are free to move about their host nation/native land, without restriction. I do not have to show my papers, every time I cross the Maryland state line.
I have spent over 16 years of my life in foreign nations, and visited many nations. All of them, require all residents, citizens, and aliens to be able to prove legal status, upon probable cause, when requested by law enforcement.
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But Charles, this is America, not Saudi Arabia…yet.
I have lived here nearly 80 years and have never been stopped and asked if I was a citizen. Not when I lived in Texas or visited family in Arizona. The area I live in now has many undocumented immigrants but no border patrol checkpoints. As I said earlier, without these hard workers, the local economy would collapse
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I have never been asked if I were a citizen, except when I was crossing an international border, or entering at an airport. I was at a training session in Yuma, Arizona, right on the international border. A co-worker got sick, and I took him to the hospital emergency room. When I was completing the paperwork, for his admission, a policeman asked me if I was from Canada. I answered truthfully, and presented a photo ID (Virginia driver’s license). I had no problem with his inquiry, and I was glad to comply.
And you are quite right, our nation’s economy has many jobs that are filled by aliens both, illegal and legal. I never use the term “undocumented immigrants”. An immigrant must apply for entry through legal channels, and jump through all of the hoops. Anyone else is illegal, and must be deported, immediately.
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The agricultural economy on Long Island is heavily dependent on illegal immigrants. The vineyards, farms, restaurants, and hotels would be crippled without them. That is Lee Zelsin’s district. They are hard-working. Many work seven days a week. They have no path to citizenship. If their employers wanted to sponsor them, they can’t. The current law does not permit it
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@Diane: Many agricultural jobs are held by illegal aliens. At least nine illegals suffocated in Texas last week. see
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/jul/23/9-die-truck-san-antonio-illegal-immigrant-smugglin/
The employers who are knowingly hiring illegal aliens in this nation, are all accomplices to this homicide. Any employer who knowingly hires an illegal alien, should face five(5) years in federal prison.
When the employment dries up, tragedies like this will disappear.
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Charles,
There are thousands of illegals propping up the economy on the East End of Long Island. Most have been here for many years. They did not arrive in box trucks. They are a mainstay of the economy. Many have families here. Many have not seen their families for years. The Roman Catholic Church has been helping them. But what can’t be helped is the injustice of our laws, which offer no path to a green card, even to those with steady jobs and a sponsor.
Your reference to the suffocation deaths in San Antonio was mean spirited and beneath you. I am speaking of people who are here, of employers who need them, or an economy that depends on their hard work, and your comment was a classic Charles’ Red Herring.
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If there were no jobs for illegal aliens, there would be no illegal aliens. If employers who knowingly hire them were jailed, the jobs would disappear, and the illegals would not come to this nation.
Every illegal alien who is in this nation, is here of their own free will and accord. No illegal is forced to come to this nation.
Montgomery County, Maryland (across the river from where I live) has refused, and is still refusing to cooperate with immigration authorities. They are a “sanctuary” county, although they have not openly admitted this.
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Here is the result of our lax enforcement of our international borders, and the result of “Sanctuary cities”
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/07/30/portland-man-accused-sexually-assaulting-65-year-old-had-been-deported-20-times.html
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“The officers (now there were two) said they were just doing their job.”
Yep. So was Adolph Eichmann.
Anyway, good for Shane. It’s hard (risky) to take a real stand. Good to see someone actually doing it.
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This teacher is very lucky she did not get manhandled or shot in the torso, face, or arm by the police for her disobedience. She is in America.
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Why do you say this? Border Patrol agents are not police, they are charged with patrolling the international borders. Some are armed, some are not. The individual in the story did not “disobey”, she simply refused to answer (This right is constitutionally protected, no one has to answer questions from any law-enforcement officer).
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She was not crossing the border
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“Why do you say this?”
Well, considering a white woman got shot just a week or so ago simply for calling 911 to report an altercation in the alley, I’m not sure who’s going to get shot by law enforcement these days. The list of people shot while not disobeying is getting very, very long. In any case, what law enforcement considers “not disobeying” seems to be a bit different than what the rest of us think. And I certainly wouldn’t count on a border patrol agent not being armed.
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Charles, she was NOT so protected. She may not have had to answer the question, but her freedoms and liberties were restricted and oppressed as the agents detained her. Had she tried to drive away, they would have stopped her by force, no doubt, American style.
She as anything but constitutionally protected.
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Violence by border patrol agents has a history of its own. Harlon Carter, a board member of the NRA, was the man most responsible from changing the organization from a benign gun safety organization to becoming a front for gun manufacturers into the zealous anti-gun control movement it has become today. As the NYT reported, in 1981 (http://www.nytimes.com/1981/05/04/us/hard-line-opponent-of-gun-laws-wins-new-term-at-helm-of-rifle.html) he took over the NRA and laid the foundation for Wayne LaPierre to take it to the next level.
What he tried to hide was the fact that, when he was a border patrol agent in Laredo, TX in 1931, he killed a 15 year old Ramon Casiano, a Mexican. After being convicted of murder, it was overturned “on the ground that the judge had not given jurors adequate instruction on the law of self-defense.”
Last year the rock group Drive-By Truckers opened their album with the song “Ramon Casiano” to educate us about this lost part of history. The closing verse is:
It all started with the border
And that’s still where it is today
Down by the sister city’s river
What for sure no can say
Killing’s been the bullets business
Since back in 1931
Someone killed Ramon Casiano
And Ramon still ain’t dead enough
The history of the border patrol, violence and injustice is not as fictitious as some would want to believe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhgGmweke5g
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And here’s the most important political song since the Impressions’ “People Get Ready.”
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Shane Parmely is one of the most courageous people fighting for public education in California. This is not an isolated incident. In our online California BATs group, I regularly see her speaking truth to power on behalf of teachers, students, parents, the LGBTQ community, Opt Outers, and others.
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This policy is as bad as “stop and frisk.” If you are not crossing a border, I don’t see why the police can stop you based on your appearance. In Texas someone was detained at a traffic stop, and the this person was the passenger of the vehicle, not the driver. What reason do they have other than someone’s skin color for such a stop? There are too many opportunities for abuse of power against minorities in this “brave new world.”
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It’s only going to get worse, rt, unless Americans wake the he!! up and start fighting back.
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I too was profiled about twenty years ago. I was in my mid forties on my way home from work after school let out. There was a traffic stop up ahead with local and state officers. The highway patrolman asked me for my license and registration. When I went to get my registration he said,”Nevermind, I know you have your registration. Go ahead.” I was offended because I was given a pass. I knew why he did it but it bothered me that assumptions were made. And yes, we all make assumptions but usually not in an official capacity.
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I once was stopped for driving in the shoulder directly before an off ramp, with plenty of other cars, on the way home from work. Unluckily, I got pulled over, no one in front of me, no one behind me. I was asked why I was driving in the shoulder, and I said with this traffic I decided to follow those in front of me and take this exit. I was asked where was I headed, and I answered truthfully. I was asked for my address, and answered truthfully. I was asked for my license, registration, and insurance card, which I produced. The officer went to his vehicle and had me wait about 8 minutes or so, and returned and again asked me how I intended to get home from the exit I was taking, which, seriously, was a route I’d taken before so I answered truthfully. He went back to his vehicle, and returned, and I said to him…either give me a ticket or ask me out because people are passing my car, in the shoulder, taking the same exit, and I’ve been sitting here for far too long. He handed me my credentials and said “you’ve been warned.” Go figure.
Not as heroic as the story above, but still an abuse of power.
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