Detention of Iranian Americans at U.s.-canada border downplayed
SEATTLE — When U.S. Customs and Border Protection acting commissioner Mark Morgan admitted in February that agents had improperly detained Iranian Americans at the U.s.-canada border, he said in “one instance leadership got a little overzealous.”
But agency documents made public Tuesday by order of a federal judge indicate that Customs agents held far more people at the Blaine, Wash., border crossing in early January than previously revealed. The internal emails show that in all, agents sent 277 people for secondary, intensive questioning — sometimes for several hours overnight.
Agency spokespeople released a statement at the time saying that reports of Iranian Americans being detained or refused entry because of their national origin were false, and blamed delays on short staffing and other factors. But representatives of advocacy organizations noted Tuesday that the emails showed the agency had issued a directive ordering the detentions, and Morgan had subsequently approved the public statement.
“This directive was blatantly unconstitutional,” said Matt Adams, legal director of the Seattle-based Northwest Immigrant Rights Project.
Numerous accounts surfaced after the weekend of Jan. 4-5 from U.S. citizens and permanent residents of Iranian descent who said they had been singled out as they tried to return to the U.S. from Canada. Some described being held for hours overnight with their children and subjected to intensive questioning.
The detentions occurred soon after Qassem Soleimani, a highranking Iranian general, was killed in a U.S. strike Jan. 3 in Baghdad.
Officials and civil rights advocates came to the defence of those who described being held. The Council on American-islamic Relations estimated that more than 60 Iranians and Iranian Americans were delayed, some for as many as 12 hours. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said that denials of the reports were not credible.
In February, the council sued the Customs agency and the Department of Homeland Security in U.S. District Court in Seattle, asking a judge to compel officials to release documents the organization had requested under the Freedom of Information Act. On Oct. 5, U.S. District Judge Ricardo S. Martinez ordered officials to make documents public, and on Tuesday the agencies released a first batch.
The records, which the advocacy groups in turn made public, do not contain the Customs agency’s directive, but they refer to it. Adams said the agency has provided the directive to the judge, who is considering whether to require officials to release it and make public the redacted portions of the documents.
Officials declined to comment Tuesday on the documents, the directive and their efforts to conceal it. “As a matter of policy, U.S. Customs and Border Protection does not comment on pending litigation,” spokesperson Jason Givens said in an emailed statement.
A lack of comment, he added, “should not be construed as agreement or stipulation with any of the allegations.”
Additional documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times show that on Jan. 3, the agency’s Seattle field office put into place official guidance targeting people based on nationality.
The correspondence shows the agency planned to send to secondary questioning or to a Tactical Terrorism Response Team “all persons” born between 1961 and 2001 with links — including place of birth, travel or citizenship — and “with any Nexus to the following countries: Palestinians and Lebanese (who) may have travelled to/from Israel and Jordan” as well as Iranian and Lebanese nationals from the Middle East, Africa and Latin America.
Officials said in one email that in light of the U.S. killing of Soleimani, it “is prudent at this time to heighten our vigilance against any potential retaliation.”