Friday, July 26, 2013

Suit: Texas man's rights violated at border checkpoint

A deaf man in Texas has filed a lawsuit over what happened to him near the Mexican border. Adam Schraer says he was held at a federal checkpoint near Boca Chica Beach in Brownsville, Texas without an interpreter. He wants the Department of Homeland Security to reveal its policies and procedures regarding the detainment of deaf people. Schraer was returning from a trip to the beach with friends in April when he was stopped by agents who did not know any sign language. They held Schraer for two hours while the officers, who confiscated his cell phone, called people in his contact list and asked them questions. The officers made no effort to contact an interpreter, according to his complaint. One of the people who was randomly called contacted Schraer's parents, who eventually arrived to pick him up.