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In the midst of ongoing threats against Iran from impeached president Donald Trump, more than 60 Iranian-American and Iranian travelers were reportedly detained at length and interrogated at the U.S.-Canada border over the weekend, The New York Times said. A leading advocacy group said that when one person asked why they were being questioned, border agents reportedly responded, “I’m sorry this is just the wrong time for you guys.”
In a statement, the Council on American-Islamic Relations said that many of those detained and outright blocked from re-entering the U.S. by Customs and Border Protection had gone to Vancouver, Canada, for an Iranian pop concert. “Those detained reported that their passports were confiscated,” the group said, “and they were questioned about their political views and allegiances.” The group said that one U.S. citizen, identified as a medical student named Crystal, was detained for more than ten hours.
“The vast majority of people being held last night were American citizens,” she said according to CAIR. “We kept asking why we were being detained and asked questions that had nothing to do with our reason for traveling and was told ‘I’m sorry this is just the wrong time for you guys.’” Sepehr Ebrahimzadeh, another traveler who had gone to Canada for the holiday break and was also interrogated, “noticed people of other backgrounds getting processed quickly, while the people of Iranian descent were left waiting for hours,” The New York Times reported.
CAIR said in its statement that “A source at CBP reported that the Department of Homeland Security has issued a national order to CBP to ‘report’ and detain anyone with Iranian heritage entering the country who is deemed potentially suspicious or ‘adversarial,’ regardless of citizenship status. CBP at the Peace Arch Border Crossing did not confirm or deny this report.” A CBP spokesperson later denied this, but federal immigration officials don’t exactly get the benefit of the doubt due to their long, documented history of lying and lawlessness.
“I wish we could trust this statement. But we absolutely cannot,” legal observer Mark Joseph Stern tweeted. “I once watched a series of CBP officers brazenly lie under oath in court. CBP has zero credibility.” In just one example, Stern said that “In 2010, a CBP agent shot Juan Mendez, an 18-year-old American, twice in the back, killing him. The agent claimed the victim had fought him, but interviews later revealed that he had been coached by a CBP official to fabricate the altercation.”
“These reports are extremely troubling and potentially constitute illegal detentions of United States citizens,” Masih Fouladi, executive director of CAIR’s Washington chapter, said about the interrogations. “We are working to verify reports of a broad nationwide directive to detain Iranian-Americans at ports of entry so that we can provide community members with accurate travel guidance. We will continue to update the community and other civil rights organizations as we obtain more information.”