In a letter to acting Customs and Border Protection commissioner Mark Morgan, the legislators, led by U.S. Sens. Tom Carper of Delaware, Dianne Feinstein of California, and Patty Murray of Washington, write, “Those subjected to this prolonged inspection included U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents, who were asked, among other things, about their political views, allegiances, social media profiles, family relationships, and military service.”
Among the families harassed at the northern border was that of Negah Hekmati, who, along with her husband and young children, was detained for five hours and peppered with questions about extended family and social media accounts. “The experience terrified my children,” she later wrote in an op-ed for The Washington Post. “That night, as we walked through the chilly parking lot, they were bursting with questions we couldn’t answer. My daughter told me, urgently, not to speak Farsi. If I didn’t speak Farsi, she said, they wouldn’t know that we were from Iran, and we wouldn’t get into trouble.”
“As you are aware, CBP has the crucial responsibility of facilitating legitimate trade and travel through our ports of entry,” the senators continued in their letter. “It is imperative that CBP follows our laws and does not discriminate based upon protected characteristics, as prolonged detainment of travelers based on discriminatory practices is a clear violation of CBP guidance. It is also vital that U.S. citizens and other travelers posing no risk to the homeland are not subject to unnecessary delay or unjustified intrusions as they transit across our border.”
The senators called on Morgan to “Provide us with any and all directives, instructions, policies, memos or any guidance, either verbal or written, relating to additional scrutiny, enhanced screening, vigilance, and/or non-routine or secondary inspections at ports of entry and airports,” and asked, “If no directives were issued, what level of discretion do CBP port directors have for operationalizing CBP orders for enhanced screening, additional scrutiny, or vigilance at ports of entry?”
U.S. border officials’ claims that there was no intentional targeting of Iranian Americans and their families just don’t square up, Democratic leaders, including Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal, said in their letters to Trump officials. The statements, Jayapal said in her letter, “do not explain why impacted persons were overwhelmingly of Iranian heritage, nor why pre-cleared U.S. citizen travelers would have been placed in secondary inspection and delayed for five hours.”
“After what happened to us last weekend, our friends and neighbors have shown amazing kindness, leaving flowers and even wine and cheese on our doorstep,” Hekmati wrote in her op-ed in the Post. “They wanted to make sure that we felt free, safe and at home. I fear that I can’t say the same about our government.”
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