A woman in Montana and her friend - both U.S. citizens - were detained and questioned by Border Patrol after an agent overheard them speaking Spanish at a gas station, The Washington Post is reporting.
Ana Suda and her friend Mimi Hernandez, were stopped at a convenience store in Havre, Montana, a town near the border with Canada. A video of the incident was recorded by Suda and shown on KTVH-TV in Montana.
Suda and Hernandez said they were making a late-night run to pick up eggs and milk at the store. Both are Mexican American and speak fluent Spanish.
Suda was born in Texas and raised in Mexico. Hernandez is originally from California, according to the Post.
"We were just talking, and then I was going to pay," Suda told the newspaper. "I looked up (and saw the agent), and then after that, he just requested my ID. I looked at him like, 'Are you serious?' He's like, 'Yeah, very serious.'"
The questioning continued in the store's parking lot where Suda asked the agent why she was being detained.
"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 said on the video.
He denied the two women were being racially profiled. But Suda said they were detained for nearly 35 minutes. Now, Suda said she is planning to take legal action, the Post reported.
"I was so embarrassed … being outside in the gas station, and everybody's looking at you like you're doing something wrong," she said. "I don't think speaking Spanish is something criminal, you know? My friend, she started crying. She didn't stop crying in the truck. And I told her, we are not doing anything wrong."
A spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the agency is reviewing the incident.
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