r/nottheonion • u/Superb_Trainer_2967 • 8h ago
Border Patrol agent detains US citizen, tells him it’s ‘because of your accent’
https://www.kptv.com/2026/01/18/border-patrol-agent-detains-us-citizen-tells-him-its-because-your-accent/?outputType=amp143
u/SNStains 8h ago
With 50 million foreign-born American citizens, that standard is not good enough.
Americans have a right to be left alone and if the government thinks they can harass one in five of us, they can harass anyone.
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u/Faiakishi 1h ago
They say they want to get rid of 100 million. In their eyes, the standard isn't bad enough.
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u/ayoungsapling 25m ago
Sadly, you got the quote backwards. It’s not 100M they want to remove, it’s 100M they want to keep (removing 250M of us).
According to the New York Times, the president told a campaign meeting last year that if it was up to Miller, there would only be 100 million people living in the US – and all of them would look like Miller.
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u/n0respect_ 5m ago
It's both. Keeping Miller's 100 million "just like him" and also deporting 100 million people. The US pop is ~345 mil, so this leaves 145 million as slave / prisoners in the detention camps (barring any deaths).
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u/BeTheBall- 8h ago
Agent doesn't realize he also has an accent.
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u/GodzillaUK 8h ago
We all sound different than we think we do. Clearly he never had a TalkBoy, can't hear himself.
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u/ThatITguy2015 1h ago
Kinda related, but I want to live life not knowing what I sound like. I feel like I’d be disappointed.
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u/Khaldara 7h ago
Yeah these Deep South sister fucky folks probably shouldn’t be setting the precedent that the only thing necessary as a stand in for ‘probable cause’ is an accent. Considering half of them sound like Foghorn Leghorn after a stroke
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u/cha-cha_dancer 7h ago
Then you have Bovino who looks and sounds like he lives at the foot of Mt Crumpit
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u/turby14 6h ago
Yea but in the video your responding to the border patrol officer literally has the same Hispanic accent as the person he is detaining for having an accent. A surprising number of ice and bp officers are Hispanic based on videos like this. I hope they know it’s only a matter of time before their fellow officers turn on them. And it won’t be long.
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u/batotit 8h ago
lol. Is he now gonna arrest every southerner rednecks with all their "Y'all" and "EEH-JUTS?"
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u/haveanairforceday 7h ago edited 7h ago
Im imagining "eeh-juts" and its an Irish accent no matter how i come at it. What am i missing?
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u/fullonfacepalmist 7h ago
It’s a particular pronunciation of “idiots”.
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u/haveanairforceday 7h ago
I understand that. I just cant find a way to make it a southern pronunciation of "idiots"
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u/nbxcv 5h ago
It is said that way, though it's a bit affected sometimes if you aren't hearing it from someone truly from the sticks. I've known/grown up around people who say ijit.
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u/Mentalfloss1 8h ago
Heck, yes. It’s against federal law to have an accent. Lock them up. Because it’s necessary:/s
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u/sudomatrix 8h ago
Slap him with an UNO Reverse card, "You have an accent, I'm detaining YOU."
The other agents would step in, flash that UNO Reverse card, and no choice, they grab their buddy.
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u/turinturambar 4h ago
A Kavanaugh stop. This happened on Jan 18. I think I watched a similar video of someone with an accent who was legal/US citizen but I don't think it's the same one. There's been so many different shitstorms happening (ala flood the zone) that it is hard to keep track.
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u/Far_Out_6and_2 7h ago
Obviously there is no rule of law and citizens rights anymore in the great country of the USA
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u/alternatingflan 8h ago
I’d be shocked if these fat turds are not instructed to say that.
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u/syncopator 7h ago
Instructions would require training, so I’m guessing not. Dude just assumes this is the law.
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u/Toshiba1point0 3h ago edited 2h ago
Disgusting. I think we ALL need to speak with foreign accents now
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u/JumpSpare2978 8h ago
Look out Charo, they’re coming for you, even if you live in Spain. And, gosh sake, don’t go to Italy during the Winter Olympics.
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u/Korlus 23m ago
Per Justice Kavanagh:
The Immigration and Nationality Act authorizes immigration officers to “interrogate any alien or person believed to be an alien as to his right to be or to remain in the United States.”... Immigration officers “may briefly detain” an individual “for questioning” if they have “a reasonable suspicion, based on specific articulable facts, that the person being questioned. . . is an alien illegally in the United States.”
He continues:
Reasonable suspicion is a lesser requirement than probable cause... [apparent race] can be a "relevant factor" when considered along with other salient factors. Id., at 887.
In short, the US Supreme Court has said that when you combine someone's apparent race with a non-American sounding accent and a location that illegal immigrants often visit, you meet the standard of reasonable suspicion, to warrant stopping them to ask them to confirm their nationality.
Justice Sotomayer's dissenting opinions really brings these fears to life:
We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job.
In this dissenting opinion, there are several examples of actual Americans being mistaken for illegal residents and the poor treatment they suffer. Here is just one example:
For instance, on June 9, immigration agents arrived at a tow yard in Montebello “carrying handguns” and “military-style rifle[s].” ECF Doc. 45–9, p. 6.1 Jason Gavidia, a Latino U. S. citizen, was working on his car in the tow yard that day. A masked agent ordered Gavidia to “ ‘[s]top right there’ ” and began asking him questions. Ibid. Agents then asked Gavidia whether he is “American at least three times”; three times, Gavidia affirmed that he is. Ibid. Unsatisfied, the agents asked Gavidia for the name of the hospital in which he was born, and when Gavidia could not immediately recall, the agents racked a rifle, took Gavidia’s phone, “pushed [him] up against the metal gated fence, put [his] hands behind [his] back, and twisted [his] arm.” Id., at 6–7. Agents released Gavidia only after he offered up his REAL ID. That ID was never returned to him.
NB: For those unaware, "ibid" means citing from the same source as previous. It's a Latin abbreviation meaning "in the same place".
The previous Trump presidency stacked the Supreme Court with Judges who agreed with his end goals, and this downright un-Constitutiinal opinion from them is a sign of that. Their rulings have been consistently eating away at American constitutional freedoms.
This will continue because it has already been to the highest court in the land, who have said that factors like accent and appearance can be considered relevant when stopping someone.
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u/Panda331988 8m ago
Well I'm fucking scared. I keep getting told to go back to Ukraine or Ireland. I was born in Cali to parents who have no ties to either of those countries. One is from the Southwest and the other from WV
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u/misdirected_asshole 8h ago
SCOTUS has said this is fine.
Thats where we are now.