Customs and Border Protection (CBP) stated that reports that border agents are detaining Iranians and Iranian Americans at the U.S.–Canada border aren’t accurate.
“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,” the agency wrote on Twitter.
The Muslim civil rights group Council on American-Islamic Relations made the claims, along with activists such as Iranian American fashion blogger and activist Hoda Katebi.
Neither she nor other activists provided documentation of the claims.
“Many more were reportedly refused entry to the United States due to a lack of capacity for CBP to detain them,” the group stated.
The group said the Iranian Americans had attended an Iranian pop concert in Vancouver, Canada, over the weekend. It cited one person, a 24-year-old woman named Crystal, whose last name wasn’t listed, who said, “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.'”
In a statement, Washington state Lt. Gov. Cyrus Habib said he was “deeply concerned” about reports his office was receiving about Iranian Americans “being held, sometimes for 10 hours or longer, at the Canada-Washington border.”
“My office is working as quickly as possible to gather information and to direct those being impacted to resources,” he said.
The Department of Homeland Security emphasized Iran in an update to its National Terrorism Advisory System on Jan. 4 after an Iran-backed terror group killed a U.S. contractor and hit the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, triggering reprisals from the United States, including the killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
“Iran and its partners, such as Hizbollah, have demonstrated the intent and capability to conduct operations in the United States. Previous homeland-based plots have included, among other things, scouting and planning against infrastructure targets and cyber enabled attacks against a range of U.S.-based targets.
“Iran is capable, at a minimum, of carrying out attacks with temporary disruptive effects against critical infrastructure in the United States. Homegrown violent extremists could capitalize on the heightened tensions to launch individual attacks.”
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