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News ID: 75467
Publish Date : 24 January 2020 - 22:29

CBC: U.S. Officers Told to Target Iranians

OTTAWA (Dispatches) -- U.S. border officers working at multiple Canada-U.S. border crossings were instructed to target and interrogate Iranian-born travelers in early January, said a U.S. border officer in an email obtained by CBC News.
The allegation follows reports that up to 200 people of Iranian descent travelling from B.C. — many of them Canadian or U.S. citizens — were detained and questioned for hours at the Peace Arch Border Crossing in Blaine, Wash., during the weekend of Jan. 4.
On Friday Jan. 3, the U.S. assassinated Iran’s top general, Qassem Soleimani, intensifying tensions between the two countries.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) told CBC News that the "current threat environment” prompted it to implement an "enhanced posture” at the border. However, it denied detaining Iranian-born travelers and said the delays at the Peace Arch crossing were related to staffing issues during a busy holiday weekend.
The U.S. border officer challenges CBP’s claims in an email he sent to Blaine-based immigration lawyer, Len Saunders.
Saunders believes the officer reached out to him because the lawyer has been openly critical of how CBP allegedly treated Iranian-born travelers.
Saunders confirmed the U.S. officer’s identity and said that he works on the front lines. He asked that CBC News keep the officer’s name confidential, because the person fears repercussions from his employer.
The officer told Saunders that CBP’s Seattle Field Office — which covers the Canada-U.S. border from Washington State to Minnesota — directed border officers to ask Iranian-born travelers counterterrorism questions.
The officer claimed that the sole reason Iranian travelers were detained and questioned that weekend was due to their ethnicity. He said that the operation was unethical and possibly unconstitutional.
In his email, the officer also told Saunders that after the detainment of Iranian-born travelers made national news on Jan. 5, the operation was suspended.
Saunders said he also recently spoke with another U.S. border officer who worked the weekend of Jan. 4 at a Washington State border crossing different from the Peace Arch. Saunders said the officer confirmed the Seattle Field Office had directed frontline staff to target Iranian-born travelers.
"It confirms my suspicion that this was not just happening at Peach Arch,” said Saunders. He also said that the officers’ claims confirm his beliefs about how Iranian-born travelers were treated at the border.
"They violated American constitutional rights by interrogating them and detaining them,” alleges Saunders. "What’s next? Where does it stop?”
Iranian-born Canadian citizen Sam Sadr of North Vancouver said he and three relatives were heading to Seattle when they were detained at the crossing for more than eight hours on Jan. 4.
"Why us?” said Sadr who was visiting the U.S. for the first time. He said he counted more than 120 people of Iranian heritage being held for questioning that day.
"As soon as they released me, I told the officer, ‘This is called discrimination.’”