Biracial family wrongly suspected of human trafficking by Southwest Airlines

A mother and her 10-year-old daughter were stopped by officials at Denver International Airport in October, after an airline attendant reported a possible human-trafficking incident.

Mary MacCarthy said the suspicion was based on a “racist assumption” as she is white and her daughter is biracial

The pair boarded a Southwest Airlines flight from San Jose, California, on 22 October, after Ms MacCarthy got the sudden news that her brother had died.

Upon arriving in Denver, she and her daughter were surrounded by two armed police officers and a member of Southwest staff on the jet bridge, and were questioned separately.

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