We never expected to be handcuffed, to be removed from the bus, to be interrogated or detained.
But that’s what happened last fall when we encountered U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents during our ride on the Cyr Bus Line home to Presque Isle after visiting our family for Thanksgiving.
Our offense? Exercising our constitutional rights – the Fourth Amendment, to be specific.
We moved to Presque Isle in 2021. We love our community and our life in northern Maine. While it’s a little unusual for Maine, we don’t own a car, and when we want to travel to see friends and family in other parts of the state or New England, we rely on Cyr Bus Line.
The first time Customs and Border Patrol agents questioned passengers during one of our trips, we thought it was unusual and it made us uncomfortable. We reluctantly answered their questions even though we weren’t sure why they were asking.
They wanted to know if we were U.S. citizens. You don’t need to be a U.S. citizen to ride a bus, and we weren’t crossing the border. Turns out, the armed agents didn’t have a warrant – they didn’t need one if Cyr Bus Line voluntarily allowed them to interrogate their passengers.
We researched this practice and our rights while traveling, and we made a decision. The next time we were interrogated by border agents, we would exercise our right not to answer. People should not be harassed by federal law enforcement officers just because they are riding a bus.
On November 25, 2022, when questioned by border agents—who by now had begun boarding the bus—we followed the law and exercised our rights. We declined to answer the agents’ questions about our immigration status. As a result, the armed agents handcuffed us, removed us from the bus, had our luggage removed, and interrogated us.
They were dismissive of our rights, and threatened to leave us stranded in Houlton if we didn’t comply.
We didn’t want the bus to leave without us, so we answered their questions – but then the agents moved the goal post: They asked to see I.D.
It was all theater. We showed them our driver’s licenses. They barely glanced at them.
Cyr Bus Line could stop this harassing behavior. Just like Concord Coach and Greyhound Lines, they could deny Customs and Border Patrol agents access to their buses unless they have a warrant. But they haven’t.
We’re asking that Cyr Bus Line protect their passengers by barring CBP agents from boarding their buses without a warrant. We shouldn’t have to trade our constitutional rights for a ride on the bus. And neither should anyone else.
Sarah Hinger, Senior Staff Attorney, Racial Justice Program, ACLU
At the end of its term, the Supreme Court upended established equal protection law with its decision in SFFA v. Harvard and SFFA v. UNC, effectively eliminating the use of affirmative action in college admissions. The court’s decision disregards prior precedent, as well as the societal realities of race discrimination and inequality.
Many schools, as well as the courts, recognize that diversity exposes students to new ideas and ways of thinking, prepares them to live and work with one another in a diverse society, and increases understanding and respect across differences. Those findings have not changed, although schools will need to rely more on other means of cultivating a campus where students of all backgrounds can learn together.
While this legal decision is indisputably a major setback, it is not the end of the drive to open educational opportunities for people of color. As we press forward in this work, here are four answers to crucial questions in the wake of the affirmative action rulings:
What can college admissions offices still do to ensure they create opportunities for students of color?
Affirmative action in college admissions has been an important tool, but it is not the only avenue for ensuring that educational opportunities are open to all. In the absence of affirmative action, it is more important than ever that schools work to identify and remove inequitable barriers to higher education. At a minimum, schools must continue to comply with federal and state civil rights laws that require them to provide educational opportunities on an equal basis. They can achieve this by ensuring that policies and practices do not unnecessarily limit opportunities for people on the basis of race or ethnicity (or other protected characteristics, including disability, sex, sexual orientation and gender identity) and by ensuring that school climate enables all students to access and engage with educational opportunities.
Other ways to increase opportunities include:
After students are admitted, how can colleges work to create and foster diverse and equitable campuses?
Creating a campus environment where students feel they belong and can fully engage academically is important to student recruitment and to students’ success once enrolled. This can include making classroom teaching methods more fair and inclusive; providing curriculum, programs and activities that speak to students’ diverse interests and lived experiences; reforming programs intended to fill k-12 learning gaps; removing financial obstacles to academic success; addressing bias in advising; meeting students’ basic needs for food, housing, and transportation; and supporting the needs of parenting students.
Additionally, ensuring that higher education opportunities are open to everyone requires taking a broader view of higher education. The affirmative action cases depict a higher education experience that begins with a highly competitive admissions process to an elite institution where students graduating from high school spend the next four years on campus. Equity for students who follow this path is important. But most students, regardless of their race or ethnicity, do not follow this path, and ensuring educational opportunity is open to all is broader than this. Enhancing support for community colleges and addressing educational equity across the spectrum of higher education is also important.
What do affirmative action rulings mean for other institutions? For example, can employers still pursue more racially equitable practices in the hiring process?
The decisions in the SFFA cases address the unique practice of affirmative action in higher education. They do not alter the substantially developed body of law setting the standards for compliance with federal civil rights in other areas, such as employment, lending, and housing, which each contain specific obligations. Entities are still required to comply with existing guidance in these areas.
Additionally, all recipients of federal financial assistance are required to comply with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits entities from discriminating, including through policies that have the effect of unnecessarily disadvantaging people on the basis of race. As with schools, recipients of federal funds can and should operate with neutral policies and practices that ensure opportunities are open equally to people of all races. This means that entities should periodically review their policies and practices to ensure that they do not unnecessarily inhibit equal opportunities on the basis of race or otherwise.
What ripple effects might these decisions have on K-12 education?
The SFFA decisions do not alter the legal landscape for K-12 education. In 2007, the Supreme Court clarified in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 that K-12 schools cannot use race-based student assignment practices to pursue diversity and integration. Following this decision, K-12 schools have already been operating under the guidelines similar to those announced for colleges in the SFFA decisions. The Supreme Court recognized the important values of diversity in K-12 education, and those values can be pursued through neutral policies. The court’s decision this term in Allen v. Milligan reaffirmed the understanding that examining the effects of government policies to ensure that opportunities are “equally open” to people of all races is permissible.
Affirmative Action Is the Floor, Not the Ceiling
Affirmative Action Is the Floor, Not the Ceiling
For over half a century, Affirmative Action has woven its way into the fabric of our society through nondiscrimination policies and initiatives aimed at establishing equal opportunity for women, people of color, and other minorities across schools...
For over half a century, Affirmative Action has woven its way into the fabric of our society through nondiscrimination policies and initiatives aimed at establishing equal opportunity for women, people of color, and other minorities across schools...
Schools are required at a minimum to comply with federal and state civil rights laws requiring educational opportunities to be equally available to students of all races. The educational mission of K-12 schools is best served when all students can learn together. School districts can and should continue to use a range of tools to address racially divided educational settings.
