Quandary for Cabbies

I drive a taxicab in San Diego to earn my living. On Nov. 18, I had a pickup at Division and Main streets in San Diego, and they asked me to take them to Fallbrook.

In Fallbrook I stopped at a local business to get directions to where my passengers wanted to go. While I was stopped, the Border Patrol came up to my cab and took the people out of it, telling me they were illegal aliens.

When I told the officers I didn’t know that they were illegals, they threatened to arrest me for smuggling illegal aliens and to impound my cab. Because this type of thing happens to cabdrivers all the time, a lot of us are afraid to pick up Mexican-Americans.

We are not Border Patrol officers, we are just cabdrivers. We don’t have the power to ask anyone for their I.D. or green card just to give them a ride, and we don’t want that power. Like most cabdrivers, I will transport anybody, regardless of color, religion or nationality, as long as they pay for the ride.

There should be a law passed to protect cabdrivers from being harassed like that. We are honest, hard-working people, just like anyone else in this country and deserve to be treated with respect.

HARRY SNYDER

San Diego