8:04am June 27, 2013

➸ This is what happens when border patrol responds to 911 calls

political-linguaphile:

In one case, during a girl’s birthday party in Washington state, a mother dialed 911 and, using English, asked for an ambulance because another child had an accident. She gave her surname of Martinez. Medics, sheriff deputies and, to her surprise, U.S. Border Patrol agents, rushed to the scene. The agents reportedly asked party guests “who they were and their names.”

In another case, in Lynden, Wash. in 2011, Border Patrol agents and police showed up after the Spanish-speaking father of Alex Martinez called for help. Martinez was mentally ill and behaving out of the ordinary. The agents, family members have said, asked about his legal status. Tensions escalated and Martinez, a U.S. citizen, reportedly was fatally shot 13 times by officers and agents.

So federal border patrol  employees are being used as 911 dispatchers and interpreters for the Washington cities of Blaine, Lynden, and Sumas. When Spanish speakers or people with Latino surnames have called 911 in these cities, federal agents show up to emergency or routine incidents. This is gross racial profiling and completely unconstitutional. This basically means that if my mom lived in any of those cities, a woman of Mexican descent who’s a Spanish speaker and U.S. citizen, was having some kind of medical emergency, border patrol would show up before, you know, an ambulance.  

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