Shopping While Latino?

A young man named Jonathan was shopping at Macy’s for jewelry for his girlfriend when he started being followed by a security guard. Without ever explaining why he was detaining Jonathan, the guard then took him to a room and confined him there until the police arrived and arrested him. The police officer also did not say why Jonathan was being detained, never read him his rights, and did not offer him an interpreter. Jonathan was charged with loitering and the bond was set at around $1,000. However, when Jonathan’s brother came to pay the bond, the deputies at the jail said that he could not post bond, because Jonathan was about to be deported. Jonathan remained in Cobb for three days before being transferred to the Stewart Detention Center. He then spent over 90 days in immigration detention before being deported to Guatemala. As a telling endnote to Jonathan’s story, his original loitering charge was dismissed by the district attorney without a hearing. Jonathan’s brother is now afraid to leave his house. He does not drive anywhere but to work. He says he fears for his family’s safety. Life changed dramatically for his family after his brother was deported; they live a very reclusive life and now feel even more isolated and afraid of the seemingly unlimited power of the police to arrest a Latino person for any or no reason at all.

Source: The Persistence Of Racial And Ethnic Profiling In The United States by ACLU and Rights Working Group (August 2009)