U.S. border officials have claimed there was no directive that led to the recent detention and questioning of a large number of U.S. citizens and permanent legal residents of Iranian descent at the U.S.-Canada border earlier this month. If authenticated, a document leaked to a Washington state immigration attorney and then shared with a local media outlet stands to prove officials were lying. “In a bulletin issued by the tactical analytical unit (TAU) in U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Seattle Field Office, officers were instructed to conduct vetting on all individuals who met certain criteria, including being Iranian nationals or having traveled to Iran,” The Northern Light reports.
The document was given anonymously to immigration attorney Lee Saunders, and was reportedly obtained by NBC News as well. “The CBP memo, confirmed to be authentic by a source familiar with the matter, is headed ‘Updated Procedures’ and tagged ‘Threat Alert High,’ and then notes that Iran's supreme leader vowed ‘forceful revenge’ after the U.S. strike that killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani, commander of Iran's Quds Force, on Jan. 3,” NBC News said in its report.
If confirmed, this means U.S. border officials harassed U.S. citizens, including their young children, because of who they are, and possibly lied about it. One of those harassed Iranian Americans, Negah Hekmati wrote in an op-ed for The Washington Post that the five-hour long ordeal “terrified my children. 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.”
“CBP officials had previously denied issuing any such directive,” NBC News said in its report on Thursday, a statement that now stands to be scrutinized even more with this document coming to light. The Washington Post reports that Rep. Pramila Jayapal’s office is working to verify its authenticity. “It is becoming increasingly clear from multiple conversations with travelers and CBP staff that there was, indeed, a directive from the Seattle Field Office to target Iranian Americans for secondary screening based on their country of origin and despite the fact that they were largely American citizens, legal permanent residents and legal visa holders,” she said according to The Post.