Iranian-American citizens detained at the border on the orders of Donald Trump’s goons

Iran­ian-Amer­i­can cit­i­zens return­ing from Cana­da are being harassed and detained at the Unit­ed States Bor­der by immi­gra­tion offi­cials, the Coun­cil on Amer­i­can-Islam­ic Rela­tions declared in an urgent bul­letin pub­lished today.

“The Wash­ing­ton state chap­ter of the Coun­cil on Amer­i­can-Islam­ic Rela­tions, CAIR Wash­ing­ton (CAIR-WA) is assist­ing more than 60 Ira­ni­ans and Iran­ian-Amer­i­cans of all ages who were detained at length and ques­tioned at the Peace Arch Bor­der Cross­ing in Blaine, Wash­ing­ton,” the bul­letin begins.

“Many more were report­ed­ly refused entry to the Unit­ed States due to a lack of capac­i­ty for Cus­toms and Bor­der Patrol (CBP) to detain them. Oth­er Iran­ian-Amer­i­cans are about to cross the Peace Arch Bor­der as they returned from an Iran­ian pop con­cert that was tak­ing place on Sat­ur­day in Van­cou­ver, Canada.”

“Those detained report­ed that their pass­ports were con­fis­cat­ed and that they were ques­tioned about their polit­i­cal views and alle­giances,” the bul­letin went on to explain. “CBP offi­cials con­tact­ed at the Blaine Port of Entry pro­vid­ed no com­ment or rea­sons for the detentions.”

But, of course, there is a rea­son… and it has to do with the Trump regime’s fear of reprisals fol­low­ing Trump’s deci­sion to assas­si­nate Solenami:

Crys­tal, a 24-year-old Amer­i­can cit­i­zen and med­ical stu­dent was alleged­ly detained and inter­ro­gat­ed for more than ten hours with her fam­i­ly at the Peace Arch Bor­der Cross­ing before being released ear­ly this morning.

The vast major­i­ty of peo­ple being held last night were Amer­i­can cit­i­zens,” said Crystal.

“We kept ask­ing why we were being detained and asked ques­tions that had noth­ing to do with our rea­son for trav­el­ing and were told, ‘I’m sor­ry, this is just the wrong time for you guys.’”

A source at CBP report­ed that the Depart­ment of Home­land Secu­ri­ty (DHS) 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.

Empha­sis is mine.

The offi­cial gov­ern­ment line is, of course, denial. Who, us? says CBP.

Matt Leas, a spokesman for Cus­toms and Bor­der Pro­tec­tion, dis­put­ed the accounts and reports from advo­ca­cy groups that the Depart­ment of Home­land Secu­ri­ty had issued a direc­tive to detain those with Iran­ian her­itage enter­ing the coun­try, despite their cit­i­zen­ship status.

“Social media posts that C.B.P. is detain­ing Iran­ian-Amer­i­cans and refus­ing their entry into the U.S. because of their coun­try of ori­gin are false,” Mr. Leas said. Offi­cials from the agency added secu­ri­ty at ports of entry across the coun­try after the threat from Iran.

CAIR Wash­ing­ton sub­se­quent­ly report­ed that those who were being detained have been released. But what about those Iran­ian-Amer­i­cans who need to cross the bor­der in the next few hours or days? Will they also be sub­ject­ed to this immoral, unac­cept­able treatment?

Sev­er­al mem­bers of Con­gress say they are work­ing to assist those who may have been harassed, delayed, or detained at the bor­der by the CBP.

“I am active­ly work­ing to get more infor­ma­tion on the reports of Amer­i­cans and law­ful per­ma­nent res­i­dents of Iran­ian descent being detained by CBP, includ­ing at the Canadian‑U.S. bor­der in Wash­ing­ton,” said U.S. Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Adam Smith. “It is unac­cept­able for the civ­il lib­er­ties of Amer­i­cans and immi­grants to be vio­lat­ed. We can­not let dis­crim­i­na­tion dic­tate our poli­cies and actions.”

“We have heard reports of Iran­ian Amer­i­can cit­i­zens being detained at the Blaine bor­der cross­ing,” said U.S. Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Suzan Del­Bene, who rep­re­sents bor­der neigh­bor­hoods. “My team and I are work­ing with state and fed­er­al offi­cials to get to the bot­tom of these reports. If you or your fam­i­ly have been impact­ed and require assis­tance please reach out to my office in Both­ell at (425) 485‑0085.”

“Deeply dis­turbed by reports that Iran­ian Amer­i­cans, includ­ing U.S. cit­i­zens, are being detained at the Cana­di­an bor­der with Wash­ing­ton State,” said U.S. Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Prami­la Jaya­pal. “My office has been work­ing on this all morn­ing. Please con­tact us with infor­ma­tion on direct­ly affect­ed peo­ple at WA07PJ_casework@mail.house.gov.”

If you’d like to assist those affect­ed, con­sid­er a dona­tion to CAIR Wash­ing­ton.