Print
The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution apparently no longer applies on buses. Greyhound bus passengers across the country have reportedly been subjected to warrant-less searches.
Law enforcement can stop and search Greyhound bus passengers without a warrant at any time, Consumer Affairs is alleging. Law enforcement regularly violates the 4th Amendment’s ban on unreasonable search and seizure on buses.
“The Fourth Amendment protects Greyhound from unreasonable government searches,” the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) noted. Despite that, Greyhound regularly throws passengers that refuse to cooperate with police off of its vehicles.
That means passengers have no choice but to submit to unconstitutional searches if they want to reach their destinations. People that lack the money to buy an airline ticket apparently have no constitutional rights in America.
Border Patrol Searches Bus Passengers Hundreds Of Miles From Border
Strangely enough, the U.S. Border Patrol is one of the main agencies that people have accused of violating passengers’ rights.
Border Patrol agents allegedly searched a bus and its passengers for illegal immigrants in Fort Lauderdale, Florida – hundreds of miles from the Mexican border. The Border Patrol has also reportedly searched buses in Las Vegas, Nevada. Like Fort Lauderdale, Sin City is also hundreds of miles from the Mexican border.
Disturbingly, those searches are a violation of federal law, which permits the Border Patrol to only search vehicles within 100 miles of the border. Despite this fact, Greyhound is cooperating with the searches.
Federal Agents Searching Bus Passengers Without Warrant
Every bus passenger should worry about warrantless searches because the Border Patrol is not alone.
Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) special agents routinely search passengers on buses and Amtrak trains in Albuquerque, New Mexico. A DEA agent named Jarrell Perry reportedly searches 20 buses a month without warrants.
Greyhound supposedly gives Perry manifests of its buses so he knows which passengers to search. Disturbingly, the manifests tell Perry whether passengers paid with cash or a credit card.
Consequently, people are being subjected to warrantless searches for using cash. To make matters worse, agents are searching the passengers because they chose not to fly.
Most frightening of all, Greyhound may have allowed Perry to open passengers’ bags and search them secretly without a warrant. Therefore, Perry may have illegally searched passengers’ luggage without their knowledge.
Agents like Jarrell Perry apparently search bus passengers because higher levels of security scare smugglers away from airports. Frighteningly, law enforcement and federal agencies are stripping Americans of their rights because they are too poor to fly or drive.
It looks as if the Constitution no longer applies to travelers in America. As a consequence, everybody had better prepare to have their rights violated when they travel.
