US Border Patrol agent detains two American citizens after hearing them speak Spanish in Montana

A woman said she plans to take legal action after a Border Patrol agent detained and questioned her and a friend - both US citizens - after overhearing them speak in Spanish at a petrol station.

The incident occurred last week at a shop in Havre, Montana, a town in the northern part of the state, near the border with Canada.

Ana Suda said she and her friend, Mimi Hernandez, were making a midnight run to the store to pick up some eggs and milk. Both Mexican American, they were chatting in Spanish as they waited to pay, when a uniformed Border Patrol agent interrupted them, Ms Suda said.

“I looked up [and saw the agent], and then after that he just requested my ID," she told The Washington Post. "I looked at him like, 'Are you serious?' He's like, 'Yeah, very serious.' ”

Ms Suda said she felt uncomfortable and began recording the encounter with her cellphone after they had moved into the parking lot. In the video, she asks the agent why he was detaining them and he says it was specifically because he heard them speaking Spanish.

“Ma'am, the reason I asked you for your ID is because I came in here and I saw that you guys are speaking Spanish, which is very unheard of up here,” the agent can be heard saying in the video.

Ms Suda asked whether they had been racially profiled; the agent said no.

“It has nothing to do with that,” the agent tells her. “It's the fact that it has to do with you guys speaking Spanish in the store, in a state where it's predominantly English-speaking.”

Ms Suda, 37, was born in El Paso, Texas, and raised across the border in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, but has spent much of her adult life moving around the United States with her husband and young daughter. Ms Hernandez is originally from central California, Ms Suda said.

Despite explaining this to the agent and showing him their IDs, Ms Suda said, he kept them in the parking lot for 35 to 40 minutes. Though no one raised their voices in the video, Ms Suda said she and Ms Hernandez were left shaken and upset by the encounter - which ended around 1am.

“I was so embarrassed ... being outside in the gas station and everybody's going looking at you like you're doing something wrong. I don't think speaking Spanish is something criminal, you know?” Ms Suda said. “My friend, she started crying. She didn't stop crying in the truck. And I told her, we are not doing anything wrong.”

When she got home, she posted on Facebook about what had taken place at the gas station. She said her shock began to give way to sadness in the following days, after some local news outlets reported the incident, and her seven-year-old daughter asked whether the video meant they should no longer speak Spanish in public.

“She speaks Spanish and she speaks English,” Ms Suda said. “When she saw the video, she was like, 'Mom, we can't speak Spanish anymore?' I said 'No. You be proud. You are smart. You speak two languages.' This is more for her.”

Representatives from US Customs and Border Protection did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The agency issued the following statement last week to MTN News:

“Although most Border Patrol work is conducted in the immediate border area, agents have broad law enforcement authorities and are not limited to a specific geography within the United States,” the agency said. “They have the authority to question individuals, make arrests, and take and consider evidence."

Havre is a rural town with a population of about 10,000, about 35 miles south of the US-Canada border. Border Patrol agents have broad authority to operate within 100 miles of any US border, though they cannot initiate stops without reasonable suspicion of an immigration violation or crime.

Ms Suda said she is used to seeing Border Patrol agents in Havre, because it's so close to Canada, especially at gas stations - but had never been stopped before.

“It's a nice town. I don't think it's a confrontational [population] here,” Ms Suda said. “But now I feel like if I speak Spanish, somebody is going to say something to me. It's different after something like this because you start thinking and thinking.”

Ms Suda said she plans to contact the American Civil Liberties Union to seek legal guidance. ACLU representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday.

“I just don't want this to happen anymore,” Ms Suda said. “I want people to know they have the right to speak whatever language they want. I think that's the most important part, to help somebody else.”

The Washington Post