The officer attempted to calm Furfey, explaining that both her husband and her daughter were safe and well but that another passenger had accused her husband of child trafficking after noting that “my fair-skinned daughter didn’t look like her Mexican father.”“This passenger had no basis for this claim, nor any evidence to back it up,” said Furfey, adding that the female passenger who had made the accusation was “obviously inebriated” and had displayed a “strange obsession” with her daughter during the flight.When the plane landed at Newark, Port Authority and Customs and Border Patrol officers boarded and escorted Furfey’s husband and daughter from the aircraft before the other passengers had disembarked. They then asked Furfey’s husband for details of his daughter’s place of birth and wanted to know where her birth certificate had been issued. During this interrogation, her daughter began to cry uncontrollably, Furfey recounts.All of Furfey’s husband’s papers were in order and he was carrying a notarized letter stating that he had permission to take her daughter to Mexico on a family visit. On the phone, Furfey corroborated her husband’s responses and authorities appeared satisfied. But they said it wasn’t worth investigating the mental state of the passenger who had made the initial accusation.We never thought flight attendants on United would take the passenger’s observation seriouslyMAURA FURFEYFurfey later complained to the customer service department of United, and received a $100 travel voucher. But she has said that she and her family will never travel on the airline again.“We never thought […] that flight attendants on a major airline – United Airlines – would choose to take such an observation [from a passenger] seriously,” she said of the incident.

Source: United Airlines scandals: Mexican man falsely accused of trafficking daughter on United flight | In English | EL PAÍS