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Dear John,
Yesterday evening, a judge ordered Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) to release a trove of documents [[link removed]] confirming, in black and white, how CBP officials blatantly profiled people of Iranian descent, including U.S. citizens and permanent residents , following the U.S. assasination of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani on January 2nd. According to the documents, CBP officials detained 277 individuals for secondary questioning, including 85 U.S. citizens, the majority of whom were people of Iranian heritage. Most of the confirmed cases were originally thought to have occurred at the Blaine, WA border cross - but now, we have additional confirmation of secondary screenings in other locations throughout the country.
These actions made national headlines in January, when hundreds of Iranian Americans were detained for hours at the Blaine border crossing. At the time, NIAC worked to connect affected individuals with Congressional offices and helped expose and put a stop to the abuse, including by successfully requesting an investigation of the abuses by the DHS Department of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. Now, these documents confirm not just that CBP was systematically targeting American citizens and permanent residents based on their Iranian heritage, but that they blatantly lied to the media and public in denying this was the case and attempted to cover it up after mounting public pressure.
We are working now to ensure Congress and the incoming Biden Administration investigates and takes necessary action on this episode and to protect our rights against any lingering excesses and abuses . Moreover, as we noted in our statement [[link removed]] on these revelations, this episode proves yet again the link between U.S.-Iran tensions and civil liberties for our community in the United States, which makes our efforts to secure a return to the Iran deal and to work for peace and diplomacy so vitally important.
Thanks for your support and we will keep you updated as this moves forward.
Best,
Jamal Abdi
President, NIAC
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