Two Trump voters allege that Border Patrol agents racially profiled them after they were stopped and questioned on the way to the dentist.
George and Esmeralda Doilez, both U.S. citizens, were driving to an appointment in Southern California on Wednesday when a dark SUV started to follow them.
George told a San Diego NBC affiliate that the SUV put on a siren, pulled them over, and a group of masked Border Patrol agents got out to question them.
The Doilezes told NBC7 that they had been scoping out potential camping sites in the area on the way to the dental appointment.
George and Esmeralda voted for Trump in 2020, both of their first time voting, and again in 2024.
In a video of the interaction, a Border Patrol agent questions George through the car window.
“If you have a dentist appointment, it probably wasn’t the best idea to be out in the middle of nowhere,” the agent tells him.
“We have the right to travel anywhere we want to travel,” George says.
“You’re absolutely right, you do, and I actually have the right and authority to stop you,” the agent replies. “It’s called reasonable suspicion.”
The stated reason for the stop was that a “known alien” had been detected in the area, which is about 9 miles from the Southern Border. The agent said the Doilezes had aroused suspicion by making several U-turns.
But the couple said they thought the true rationale for the stop was their skin color.
“Why are we not allowed to be here? Because we’re not white? Our skin doesn’t match?” George told NBC7.
The agent called a K-9 unit, which detected a small amount of legally purchased cannabis in the car.
Citing that finding as probable cause, the agents searched George and Esmeralda’s car before letting them go about 30 minutes after the encounter began.
“I’m gonna go ahead and let you off with a warning,” the agent said after he told them he could have ticketed them for having marijuana.
In the wake of the incident, which left George “terrified” and his wife “shaking and crying,” the couple said that they regretted their votes for Trump.
“I feel shame, guilt, and anger at the same time because of the promises that he made that he lied to us about, going after the worst of the worst,” George said. “He lied on those and he stole our vote.”
Despite Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) policies dictating that the agency cannot lawfully detain U.S. citizens, the agencies have detained dozens of citizens—including an electrician in New York and a tow yard employee near Los Angeles—per CNN.
Echoing Doilez’s frustration with Trump’s promise to target the “worst of the worst,” internal ICE data obtained by NBC shows that about half of those in custody have been neither convicted nor charged with a crime.
“Complying is going to get you in a prison concentration camp,” George said. “That’s what it’s going to do eventually. Maybe it might be sooner than we all think.”
A media contact for Customs and Border Patrol did not respond to an immediate request for comment.
The post MAGA Couple Regrets Trump Vote After Terrifying Border Patrol Stop appeared first on The Daily Beast.
