American Civil Liberties Union

Yesterday, military veteran and U.S. citizen Robert Cote spoke to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) about his wife, Rita, who was illegally arrested and detained by Florida police and now faces deportation.

In February 2009, Rita Cote helped her sister, who does not speak English, report a domestic violence incident. She stayed with her sister until the police arrived in order to translate. But rather than attending to Cote's sister, who was visibly injured and anxious to report her assault, the police instead asked Cote to show her passport, based on nothing more than her race and Spanish accent. After targeting her on those bases, police found an administrative removal order issued when she was a minor and of which she had no notice.

At this point, most know the story of Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old who died from a fatal gunshot wound on Feb. 26 in Sanford, Fla. The tragic story has garnered national attention, bringing to light valuable questions about the role of race and stereotypes in law enforcement practices. More than a month later, the controversy continues to brew.