Mona Zabihian, a US citizen who was born in Iran, told BuzzFeed News in an email that she was returning to the US at a port of entry in Blaine, Washington after attending a concert by an Iranian performer in Vancouver with four other people: Her boyfriend, who is Iranian but was born in Germany, and three other US citizens born in Iran.
When they tried to cross, the group she was with was sent to secondary inspection by CBP.
"After waiting for about want seemed like an hour, they called me and questioned me. They wanted to know the names of all my immediate family members, their birthdates, their location, and their occupation," Zabihian told BuzzFeed News. "They asked when was the last time I visited Iran."
It's unclear how many people of Iranian descent were sent to secondary inspection Saturday night after trying to enter the US through Blaine, but the Council on American-Islamic Relations’s Washington state branch said there were “more than 60.” Matt Adams, legal director at the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, whose group spoke with two families that were questioned, told BuzzFeed News the number was at least 40.
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Zabihian said her group waited for more than five hours before they were allowed to enter the US.
Her group and other Iranian-born people, which included US citizens, were held in a room without enough seats for everyone and with only one bathroom, Zabihian said. If they wanted to get food from a vending machine they had to be accompanied by a CBP officer to another section of the port of entry.
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Another US citizen, a mother born in Iran and traveling back to the US with her children, told BuzzFeed News she was in secondary inspection for six hours on Saturday at the Blaine port of entry. She declined to give her full name out of fear of retaliation.
She was questioned about her work, citizenship, and whether she had been in the military. CBP officers also asked her to provide the names and birthdays of her family members.
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