Teach Your Children: Teacher refuses to answer Border Patrol questions at checkpoint

News from San Diego.  Middle school teacher Shane Parmely was detained for over an hour by Border Patrol agents at a checkpoint in New Mexico because she refused to answer a question about whether she was a U.S. citizen.

Parmely’s family helped her film the incident, which she posted Friday evening on her Facebook account. Parmely told Border Patrol agents that she believed she did not have to answer their questions. One agent showed her a card listing immigration law and a Supreme Court case decision that give Border Patrol agents the authority to operate checkpoints within 100 miles of the border and to ask questions about citizenship without warrants.

“Enforcing racist laws perpetuates institutional racism,” Parmely added in a Facebook comment. “I’m sick of helping perpetuate racist laws just because I’m not inconvenienced by them.”

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KJ