The New York Times
The practice of Forest Service officers’ requesting language interpretation and security backup from Border Patrol agents during stops of Spanish-speaking people is discriminatory, according to a federal administrative ruling made public this week.
The ruling, by Joe Leonard Jr., assistant secretary for civil rights of the Department of Agriculture, said requesting interpretation assistance was “merely an excuse to target Latino individuals for immigration enforcement.”
The ruling came in response to a claim by the companion of a Mexican man who drowned in a river on the Olympic Peninsula last year after a Border Patrol officer, summoned by a Forest Service officer, chased the man into the woods.
The couple had been stopped on Olympic National Forest land while picking salal, an evergreen shrub used in floral arrangements.
The ruling included disciplinary actions against some employees, and it ordered the Forest Service to create new guidelines for dealing with people who speak limited English.
