Documents show alleged CBP cover up of Iranians’ detainment at Blaine border crossing
More than 250 people of Iranian descent, including 80 U.S. citizens, reportedly were referred for secondary inspection at the Blaine Peace Arch Border crossing by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection last January. Some were detained for more than nine hours, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection documents a court recently ordered released.
The documents also reportedly show CBP then attempted to cover up orders from the Seattle Field Office to detain people of Iranian heritage.
The documents were made public Tuesday, Nov. 17, by the Washington state chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Washington and the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP) in a release following an order by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington to make public hundreds of pages of emails regarding January’s incident in Blaine.
“There is no basis for detaining individuals due to their national origin,” CAIR-Washington Executive Director Imraan Siddiqi said in the release. “Not only were the CBP’s actions illegal, but they explicitly colluded to cover it up and keep their actions from the American people.”
The Bellingham Herald asked the CBP for response to the release and was told CBP does not comment on pending litigation, according to an email from spokesperson Jason Givens.
“However, lack of comment should not be construed as agreement or stipulation with any of the allegations,” Givens wrote.
Detained at the border
On Jan. 4, CAIR-Washington sent out a news release stating that it was assisting more than 60 Iranians and Iranian-Americans that had been detained and questioned for a lengthy time in Blaine.
CBP denied the claims at the time, as spokesperson Michael Friel told The Bellingham Herald in an email, “Social media posts that CBP is detaining Iranian-Americans and refusing their entry into the U.S. because of their country of origin are false. Reports that DHS/CBP has issued a related directive are also false.”
The claims came in the wake of a U.S. airstrike near Baghdad’s airport Jan. 3 that killed Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, head of Iran’s elite Quds Force and the mastermind of its interventions across the Middle East. Iran promised to seek revenge, and the U.S. said that it was sending thousands more troops to the region as tensions soared.
According to the CAIR release at the time, Iranian-Americans were preparing to cross from Canada into the U.S. at the Peace Arch crossing to return to their homes following an Iranian pop concert Saturday in Vancouver, B.C. Those who were detained reported having their passports confiscated and being questioned about their political beliefs and allegiances, according to the release, and that CBP officials at Blaine refused to comment on the reasons for the detentions.
The incident brought calls for answers from from a number of Washington lawmakers, including Gov. Jay Inslee, who called the reports “deeply alarming” in a Jan. 6 statement.
Documents released
According to Tuesday’s release, Chief Judge Ricardo Martinez of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington ordered the CBP to search emails of its high-level officials for materials relating to a directive mandating a detention of people of Iranian descent, including U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents of Iranian heritage. The CAIR and NWIC release Tuesday made available those documents.
“The newly released emails unequivocally demonstrate that CBP detained United States citizens, lawful permanents residents, and others based solely on their national origin for many hours at the Blaine Port of Entry,” the release stated. “Critically, the records show that even the media’s largest estimates of the number of these detentions were an undercount.”
The release reported that an email from CBP Seattle Field Office Director Adele Fasano to CBP Executive Director of Field Operations Randy Howe stated that on Jan. 3-4 more than 250 people were referred for secondary inspection bases on their national origin. Eighty of those people were U.S. citizens.
Though most people were detained between three and four hours, the release states that emails showed some were held for more than nine hours.
The release also states that emails showed that, despite the CBP statement at the time denying there was a directive to detain people of Iranian descent crossing the U.S.-Canada border following the assassination of Soleimani, the Seattle Field Office had ordered agents to “refer all encounters with individuals from areas of national concern for additional inspection and vetting.”
Later emails instructed the Seattle Field Office to stop discriminating based on national origin, the release states.
“The Constitution makes clear that discrimination based on national origin like this is unlawful,” NWIRP Legal Director Matt Adams said in the release. “Yet, the records plainly demonstrate that CBP officials detained hundreds of people, including scores of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents solely because of where they were born.
“Moreover, the records make clear that authorities then lied about it. We urge Congress and the incoming Biden administration to hold CBP officials accountable for violating the civil rights of Iranian-Americans, among others.”
In addition to the document release in Tuesday’s release, Martinez also required CBP to provide the court with unredacted copies of documents CBP had refused to release to determine if those also could be released to the public.
This story was originally published November 17, 2020 at 10:52 AM.
