US agents admit to ‘enormous mistakes’ in border stops of Iranians: Congresswoman

An American Congresswoman says US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has admitted that the agency made “enormous mistakes in protocol” when its officers questioned Iranians and Iranian-Americans — some for as long as 12 hours — at the US-Canada border last month.

Pramila Jayapal, D-Seattle, made the remarks after a meeting with Adele Fasano, the director of field operations for the Seattle Field Office of Customs and Border Protection, and Fasano’s chief of staff, as well as US Rep. Suzan DelBene and representatives from the offices of US Rep. Kim Schrier and Sen. Maria Cantwell.

Jayapal said Fasano admitted that the CBP’s denial of a directive to question and hold Iranian and other foreign-born people from the Middle East were not true.

 “That there were enormous protocols and mistakes made, and that there was guidance given — whether you call it guidance or not — but certainly directives given that translated into the Blaine CBP holding people for literally being born in a particular country,” Jayapal said.

The Democratic representative said Fasano was calling for an investigation.

The Seattle times says on Jan. 30, Blaine immigration lawyer Len Saunders said he obtained a photocopied memo from the CBP’s Seattle Field Office on a directive for lengthy stops and questioning of Iranian, Lebanese and Palestinian nationals who were crossing into the US from Canada between Jan. 4 and 5.

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The daily added that during that weekend, as many as 200 people were affected by the prolonged stops, which ended after immigrant advocates, the media and politicians called attention to what was happening.

Just weeks before, Saunders had received an email from a CBP officer complaining about an “operation” to hold and question people of Iranian descent, Jayapal said.

At the time, the CBP, which is part of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), denied it was detaining those people as well as the existence of a directive.

Jayapal and DelBene, D-Medina, Washington sent a letter last month  to the chairs of the Judiciary Oversight and Homeland Security committees about the operation, but received no response.

DelBene said “It is disappointing that CBP officials were not honest about the incidents in Blaine when we first reached out to them with questions.”

The detention of Iranians and Iranian-Americans at the US-Canada border came amid growing tensions between the US and Iran, especially after Washington assassinated a top Iranian general in an airstrike in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad on January 3.

The attack targeted Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, the commander of Iran's Quds Force, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), as well as eight companions of the pair.  

Iran has pledged a “harsh revenge” to the assassination, and carried out a retaliatory missile attack against two US-occupied bases in Iraq.

In recent weeks, US Customs and Border Protection agents have detained and deported several Iranian students, who had valid visas to enter the United States.

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