The ACLU released a statement on its social media accounts calling for bus transit company Concord Coach Lines to cease what it says is complicity with immigration officials.
The civil liberties group also posted video allegedly showing travelers encountering immigration agents as they prepared to board a Concord Coach Lines bus in Maine. In that video, some of the customers question a company employee.
“Do you have to be a U.S. citizen to take this bus?” the boarding passenger asks.
“Yes," the Concord Coach employee answers.
But Concord Coach Lines Vice President Ben Blunt says that employee misspoke.
"I think if we are remiss in anything here, it's not doing a good enough job talking about this issue with our staff," Blunt says.
He says guidance from the American Bus Association has led him to believe they don't have much of a say when it comes to cooperation with immigration agents. “We don’t want to ask our employees -- our drivers, our ticket agents -- to be interfering with a federal officer who is lawfully doing his job,” says Blunt.
In the statement, ACLU of New Hampshire Legal Director Gilles Bissonette argues that a private entity like Concord Coach Lines has no legal obligation to cooperate with immigration officials.
