first_published_at,last_published_at,title,slug,latest_revision_created_at,charges,legal_orders,updates,categories,links,equipment_seized,equipment_broken,targeted_journalists,authors,date,exact_date_unknown,city,state,latitude,longitude,body,introduction,teaser,teaser_image,primary_video,image_caption,arrest_status,arresting_authority,release_date,detention_date,unnecessary_use_of_force,case_number,case_statuses,case_type,status_of_seized_equipment,is_search_warrant_obtained,actor,border_point,target_us_citizenship_status,denial_of_entry,stopped_previously,did_authorities_ask_for_device_access,did_authorities_ask_about_work,assailant,was_journalist_targeted,charged_under_espionage_act,subpoena_type,subpoena_statuses,name_of_business,third_party_business,legal_order_target,legal_order_type,legal_order_venue,status_of_prior_restraint,mistakenly_released_materials,type_of_denial,targeted_institutions,tags,target_nationality,workers_whose_communications_were_obtained,politicians_or_public_figures_involved 2023-11-09 18:38:48.552919+00:00,2023-11-09 18:45:17.705788+00:00,Documentarian returning from film festival questioned for second time,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/documentarian-returning-from-film-festival-questioned-for-second-time/,2023-11-09 18:45:17.590459+00:00,,,,Border Stop,,,,Michael Rowley (Independent),,2023-03-24,False,New York,New York (NY),None,None,"
Independent filmmaker Michael Rowley was flagged for additional security screening and questioned about his documentary work for the second time, on this occasion upon arriving at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on March 24, 2023.
Rowley was first stopped in October 2019 when returning from his film screening in the West Bank city of Ramallah, via Tel Aviv, Israel. At that time, a plainclothes officer questioned him about the content of his first documentary, which focuses on the lives of young Palestinian men, as well as about the characters in the film and his methods of making it.
Rowley told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in November 2023 that he had traveled to Copenhagen, Denmark, for the world premiere of his latest film, “Praying for Armageddon,” from March 17 to 24. When passing through passport control at JFK Airport, Rowley was again flagged for secondary screening and directed to an interview room for questioning.
The officer who questioned him indicated that the filmmaker had been added to a watchlist of some kind, and that she had reviewed the notes from the questioning on his previous trip.
“She said, ‘So you’re in our system because of someone that you filmed with,’” Rowley added. He told the Tracker that he believes she was alluding to the man he had been asked to identify when questioned in 2019. She also asked about whether he had traveled to any “places of interest” while he was abroad. When asked to elaborate she specifically named Iran.
He said he was released after about 30 minutes, but that when he obtained the boarding pass for the next leg of his travels it was marked with “SSSS” — secondary security screening selection. Rowley said he was then subjected to a full-body pat-down, an extensive search of his belongings and was asked to demonstrate that his laptop and cellphone functioned, which delayed him an additional hour.
In April, Rowley said he filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Traveler Redress Inquiry Program in an effort to prevent further security screenings.
“It is clear from the questions that [Customs and Border Protection] officials have asked me that I am being singled out for questioning and additional security screening due to my First Amendment-protected journalistic and filmmaking activities,” Rowley wrote in his complaint, which asks that he be removed from any watchlist that he may have been added to.
Rowley told the Tracker that during the two trips that he has taken since, he has not been stopped for additional security or questioning, but that his experiences had affected his reporting.
“I was in the early stages of working on a new documentary here in Dallas, which I decided to put on hiatus indefinitely because of the realization of being on a watchlist and for fear of bringing government attention to the characters in the film,” Rowley said. “It certainly had a chilling effect on me and my work.”
Documentarian Michael Rowley was questioned for the second time by U.S. border authorities when flying into New York, New York, on March 24, 2023. A plainclothes officer said he was “in [their] system” because of someone he filmed with in the West Bank.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,John F. Kennedy International Airport,U.S. citizen,False,True,no,yes,None,None,False,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,,United States,, 2021-07-09 14:59:15.475860+00:00,2022-08-22 19:49:54.474876+00:00,Intercept reporter told “You are not a journalist” when stopped by border officials,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/intercept-reporter-told-you-are-not-a-journalist-when-stopped-by-border-officials/,2022-08-22 19:49:54.404573+00:00,,,,Border Stop,,,,Ryan Devereaux (The Intercept),,2021-04-30,False,Nogales,Arizona (AZ),31.34038,-110.93425,"Ryan Devereaux, who reports for The Intercept, was stopped and told “You are not a journalist” by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection official at the Arizona border with Mexico on April 30, 2021, as he returned from covering a protest in Nogales, Mexico.
Devereaux, who was traveling with photojournalist Ash Ponders, said that after a long wait at the border, officials called Ponders first for processing. According to Devereaux, Ponders and a CBP official were deep in a long conversation and disagreement when the official tried to take their phone. The photojournalist managed to lock it.
“The officer reached for it. Ash was then taken to a group holding cell and I was called forward,” Devereaux told the Tracker.
Devereaux said the same officer then asked what he was doing in Nogales. “I told her I was a journalist and working in Nogales that day,” he said.
A second officer appeared and asked Devereaux what he did for a living. “I said I was a journalist who covers border issues and that I was in town covering an asylum protest,” he said. “I had already produced my passport. I was told to produce evidence that I was a journalist. I gave the officers an Intercept business card with my name on it.”
At this point, Devereaux said he was told by a border official that he was not a journalist and was taken to the same cell where Ponders was being held.
“After handing over our belongings, which sat on a table and were not moved, we sat in the cell with a handful of other detainees,” Devereaux said. “Eventually I was told I could go. I was never questioned.”
Devereaux said he was told he could not wait in the area for Ponders but must wait outside.
After being released, Devereux tweeted that CPB officials should not be harassing journalists “I was just taken into secondary screening after being told I was “not a journalist.” @ashponders is still being detained. Going on an hour now.”
.@CBPArizona should not be hassling working journalists passing through the Nogales port of entry for work.
— Ryan Devereaux (@rdevro) April 30, 2021
I was just taken into secondary screening after being told I was “not a journalist.” @ashponders is still being detained. Going on an hour now.
Ponders, whose case is documented here, was strip-searched and held for 2 1/2 to three hours before being released, the photojournalist told the Tracker.
CPB didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Independent filmmaker Michael Rowley was questioned about his documentary work on the lives of young Palestinian men upon arriving at the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport in Texas on Oct. 10, 2019.
Rowley told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he had flown to Tel Aviv, Israel, to attend a screening in the West Bank city of Ramallah for his debut documentary “Hurdle.” After landing back in the United States, the automated machines at U.S. Customs flagged his picture with a black “X,” requiring him to report to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent for further screening.
After sitting in a waiting room for 30 minutes, Rowley said an agent who did not identify himself directed him into an interview room for questioning. The plainclothes officer had the documentary’s website pulled up on a screen in view of Rowley and questioned him for about an hour before he was released.
The official asked him about why he was interested in Palestine, what the film was about and whether Israeli security forces had any issues with him making the documentary. “This U.S. official then asked me specific questions about the content of my documentary film, the characters in it and my methods for making the film,” Rowley said.
He added that he was specifically asked to identify one of the men who appeared in the film’s trailer and about why he had submitted endorsements for the visa applications of the documentary’s three main characters so they could attend the U.S. premiere.
He was also questioned about a past layover in Moscow, Russia, and whether he had a meeting with anyone while there.
Rowley was stopped for secondary screening again in March 2023 when returning from a trip to Denmark. He was questioned about his journalistic work, with an officer informing him that he was in their system “due to someone he had filmed with.”
Rowley told the Tracker that he filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Traveler Redress Inquiry Program in April 2023 after speaking with an attorney from the ACLU in an effort to prevent further security screenings.
“It is clear from the questions that CBP officials have asked me that I am being singled out for questioning and additional security screening due to my First Amendment-protected journalistic and filmmaking activities,” Rowley wrote in his complaint, which asks that he be removed from any watchlist that he may have been added to.
Rowley told the Tracker in November 2023 that during the two trips that he has taken since, he has not been stopped for additional security or questioning, but that his experiences had affected his reporting.
“I was in the early stages of working on a new documentary here in Dallas, which I decided to put on hiatus indefinitely because of the realization of being on a watchlist and for fear of bringing government attention to the characters in the film,” Rowley said. “It certainly had a chilling effect on me and my work.”
Documentary filmmaker Michael Rowley, seen here at the West Bank screening of his film “Hurdle,” was questioned about the film, methods of filming it and the characters in it upon returning to the United States on Oct. 10, 2019.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,Dallas Fort Worth International Airport,U.S. citizen,False,False,no,yes,None,None,False,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,,United States,, 2019-10-09 14:52:35.106536+00:00,2024-01-24 22:04:36.148549+00:00,CBP officer withholds journalist’s passport until he agrees to say he writes 'propaganda',https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/cbp-officer-withholds-journalists-passport-until-he-agrees-to-say-he-writes-propaganda/,2024-01-24 22:04:35.957892+00:00,,,,Border Stop,,,,Ben Watson (Defense One),,2019-10-03,False,Dulles,Virginia (VA),None,None,"Ben Watson, a news editor for Defense One, was harassed by a U.S. immigration official when arriving at Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 3, 2019. At passport control, a Customs and Border Protection officer asked Watson four times, “You write propaganda, right?” The officer withheld Watson’s passport until he gave an affirmative answer.
Watson told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that things seemed normal as he passed through permanent resident reentry aisle No. 17 at around 4 p.m., though he noticed the CBP officer on duty was taking twice as long as normal with each customs interview.
In an account of the incident for Defense One, Watson wrote that after he answered a few standard questions about undeclared goods, the interaction took an unusual and unsettling turn.
After telling the officer that he is a journalist, the officer asked, “So you write propaganda, right?”
Watson told the Tracker that at first he wasn’t sure the officer was serious. “When I saw this smirk on his face and with the way he was looking at me, I realized this was not a joke.”
Watson responded no, that he was a journalist and that in his work covering national security he uses many of the same skills he used as a U.S. Army public affairs officer. “Some would argue, that’s propaganda,” Watson recalled saying.
The CBP officer persisted, asking a second time whether Watson is a journalist and asking again, “You write propaganda, right?”
Watson wrote that he paused briefly and then said, “For the purposes of expediting this conversation, yes.” Before returning his passport, the officer made Watson repeat for a second time that he, as a journalist, wrote propaganda.
Watson told the Tracker that he gave in when he thought about how long he could be delayed if he called for the officer’s supervisor and filed a complaint in person. He said, however, that he has since filed a civil rights complaint with the Department of Homeland Security’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.
In a statement to Defense One, a DHS spokesperson said the CRCL office has received Watson’s complaint and is reviewing it. A spokesperson for CBP also provided an emailed statement to Defense One, stating that the agency is aware of and is investigating the reports of an officer’s alleged inappropriate conduct.
Watson tweeted after the incident, “I’ve honestly never had a human attempt to provoke me like this before in my life.”
What I told my colleagues shortly afterward:
— Ben Watson (@natsecwatson) October 4, 2019
"I've honestly never had a human attempt to provoke me like this before in my life.
This behavior is totally normal now, I guess?" https://t.co/9qV5xRWVMr
Walter Shaub, an attorney who served as director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics until 2017, tweeted that the incident should go to the DHS inspector general for review.
“A customs agent withholding the passport of a journalist until he agrees to say he writes ‘propaganda’ is actionable misconduct, even in Trump’s America,” Shaub wrote.
Watson’s is the latest incident of politicized remarks by CBP agents aimed at journalists that the Tracker has documented in our border stop category. Other recent cases include a journalist being asked if he was part of the “fake news media,” two journalists being told to “fall in line” with the president’s agenda, and aggressive questioning to a reporter about his outlet’s political articles.
International passengers arrive at Washington Dulles International Airport after clearing immigration and customs in Dulles, Virginia in this 2017 file photo.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,Dulles International Airport,U.S. citizen,False,False,no,yes,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,,United States,, 2019-09-16 15:25:52.077513+00:00,2024-02-29 18:47:01.921747+00:00,"BBC journalist questioned by border official, passport reviewed",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/bbc-journalist-questioned-border-official-passport-taken-away/,2024-02-29 18:47:01.839555+00:00,,,,Border Stop,,,,Stephanie Hegarty (BBC News),,2019-08-29,False,Brownsville,Texas (TX),25.90175,-97.49748,"Stephanie Hegarty, a population correspondent for BBC News, was invasively questioned about her reporting and had her passport briefly taken away while crossing the U.S.-Mexico border on Aug. 29, 2019.
Hegarty told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she was walking across the Brownsville & Matamoros International Bridge into Texas with a cameraman and reporter from BBC Mundo around 7:45 p.m. Her colleagues passed through immigration control without incident.
When asked what she was doing in Mexico, Hegarty told the Customs and Border Protection officer that she was a reporter covering the situation at the border. That’s when it got very tense, she said.
“He said, ‘It would help you a lot if you told me exactly where you were, where you were filming and who you spoke to,’” Hegarty told the Tracker. “It was at that point that I thought, ‘Do I really have to tell you that?’”
Hegarty, who is from Ireland, told the CBP officer that she didn’t think that was necessary. The officer scanned her passport, commented, “Oh, interesting,” and asked her to wait in a room while he walked away with her passport. She told the Tracker that she was traveling on a journalist visa and was concerned by the officer’s actions.
“I kinda thought, ‘Is he putting me on some sort of list? What is he doing with my passport in that other room?” Hegarty said.
A CBP officer returned with her passport approximately 10 minutes later—Hegarty said she wasn’t certain whether it was the same officer—and his entire attitude had shifted. He was friendly while returning her passport, Hegarty said, and told her she could go.
Unlike previous searches, however, Hegarty called the incident extremely disappointing and disturbing.
“I used to work in Nigeria so I’m used to being intimidated by officials,” Hegarty said. “But when it happened in the U.S. I was shocked.”
Editor's Note: A previous version of this article misidentified Hegarty's nationality.
People wait on the Mexican side of the Brownsville & Matamoros International Bridge in 2018.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,Brownsville & Matamoros International Bridge,U.S. non-resident,False,False,no,yes,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,,United Kingdom,, 2019-08-23 21:08:10.525950+00:00,2022-08-22 19:51:33.962075+00:00,CBP agent asks British journalist entering U.S. if he’s part of the ‘fake news media’,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/cbp-agent-asks-british-journalist-entering-us-if-hes-part-of-the-fake-news-media/,2022-08-22 19:51:33.889268+00:00,,,,Border Stop,,,,James Dyer (Empire Magazine),,2019-08-22,False,Los Angeles,California (CA),34.05223,-118.24368,"British journalist James Dyer said a Customs and Border Protection agent asked him if he was “part of the ‘fake news media’” as he passed through U.S. immigration in Los Angeles on Aug. 22, 2019.
Dyer, the digital editor-in-chief at Empire Magazine and host of Pilot TV Podcast, told The Washington Post that he arrived at LAX from London in the afternoon en route to Anaheim, California, to cover Disney’s D23 Expo.
In a long thread posted on Twitter shortly after the incident, Dyer said that the CBP agent at passport control saw that he was traveling on a journalist visa and began a tirade, questioning Dyer’s work history and legitimacy.
“Just went through LAX immigration,” Dyer wrote. “Presented my journalist visa and was stopped by the CBP agent and accused of being part of the ‘fake news media.’”
Wow. Just... wow. Just went through LAX immigration. Presented my journalist visa and was stopped by the CBP agent and accused of being part of the ‘fake news media’.
— James Dyer (@jamescdyer) August 22, 2019
Dyer continued, “He wanted to know if I’d ever worked for CNN or MSNBC or other outlets that are ‘spreading lies to the American people.’ He aggressively told me that journalists are liars and are attacking their democracy.” Dyer noted that the entire exchange passed within a couple minutes.
In subsequent replies, Dyer clarified that the agent did not attempt to detain him or send him to secondary screening, and that he did not feel that he had been “mistreated or detained in any way.” Dyer wrote that he did not get the agent’s name and had not filed a complaint.
CBP Los Angeles tweeted at Dyer acknowledging that they were aware of the incident. “We strongly advise you to file a formal complaint,” the official account wrote.
In a statement to The Post, a CBP spokesperson said, “All CBP officers take an Oath of Office, a solemn pledge that conveys great responsibility and one that should be carried out at all times with the utmost professionalism.”
“Inappropriate comments or behavior are not tolerated, and do not reflect our values of vigilance, integrity and professionalism,” the statement said.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documented a similar case in February 2019, involving Australian BuzzFeed reporter David Mack. Mack tweeted that at passport control at JFK airport, a CBP agent “grilled” him for 10 minutes about the outlet’s reporting on Rober Mueller’s investigation into the Trump campaign’s connections with Russia.
BuzzFeed reported that a few days after the incident, CBP Assistant Commissioner for Public Affairs, Andrew Meehan, apologize to Mack directly in a telephone call.
As of publication, Dyer had not responded to requests for comment from the Tracker.
While entering the U.S. through Los Angeles, California, from London, British journalist James Dyer said he was questioned whether he was part of ‘fake news.’
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,Los Angeles International Airport,U.S. non-resident,False,False,no,yes,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,,United Kingdom,, 2019-06-07 14:38:35.439470+00:00,2024-01-17 15:39:28.084961+00:00,Freelance reporter stopped while crossing border; passport card photographed,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/freelance-reporter-stopped-while-crossing-border-passport-card-photographed/,2024-01-17 15:39:27.998483+00:00,,,,Border Stop,,,,Nate Abaurrea (Freelance),,2019-05-24,False,San Diego,California (CA),32.71571,-117.16472,"Nate Abaurrea, a freelance reporter and radio journalist, was stopped and pulled aside for additional screening by U.S. Customs and Border Protection while crossing into Mexico at the San Ysidro border crossing on May 24, 2019. During the screening, Abaurrea was questioned about his work and an officer photographed his passport card.
Abaurrea, an American citizen, primarily covers sports, immigration and life on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. He told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that crossing the border has been a regular part of his life for years, and has been crossing at the same time and day—Friday morning at 9:15—for the past 10 weeks.
While he’s seen one or two officers, maybe with a dog, standing on the pedestrian crossing on the east side of the port of entry, he was surprised to see five CBP officials standing behind a blind corner.
“I’ve seen officers there before but never in that formation, never like that,” Abaurrea said.
As he rounded the corner and walked past the officers, they stopped and ordered him into “a little side cage area,” Abaurrea tweeted that day. He said that they directed him to be quiet, turn around and place his hands down on a metal table. Two of the officers emptied his pockets of all of his belongings, including his phone, but did not attempt to search his electronic devices.
Abaurrea asked the officers why he was being stopped. “What’s the probable cause here?” he quoted himself as saying in an account of the incident.
“We don’t need probable cause, sir,” an officer responded. “We can stop and search whoever we want.”
Officers asked how much money Abaurrea was carrying, where he was going and why. When he told them he was on his way to a work meeting, they asked him what he did and, when he said he was a writer, who he worked for. An officer Abaurrea identified as “CBP Officer West” then aggressively patted him down, snapping the waistline of his underwear. He was then ordered to show them his passport card.
As West checked the legitimacy of his card and entered numbers into a machine, Abaurrea wrote, a young female officer told him, “If you just cooperate, this will be over. You need to familiarize yourself with the rules, sir.”
When Abaurrea again asked to be told why he was stopped, he wrote that West smiled and asked him to take off his shoes, which were also thoroughly searched. He was then told he was free to go, and began gathering up his belongings. Abaurrea reported that at the moment he noticed West still had his passport card, the officer pulled out a cellphone and took a picture of the card. Abaurrea asked why he did that, to which West responded it was “for [his] records.”
CBP was not immediately available for comment on whether the officer used a government or personal phone, why the photo was taken or where the image is now.
Abaurrea told the Tracker that he has been in contact with multiple nonprofits and organizations that are providing him advice and legal aid as he pursues next steps, including filing for a redress number, a FOIA on his name in CBP and Department of Homeland Security records and a possible lawsuit.
Freelance journalist Nate Abaurrea, who often crosses the U.S.-Mexico border for work, was pulled out for secondary screening, during which a border official photographed his passport card with a cellphone.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,San Ysidro Port of Entry,U.S. citizen,False,False,no,yes,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,migrant caravan,United States,, 2019-02-20 21:30:08.930706+00:00,2024-01-11 17:54:55.372751+00:00,"Journalist stopped at the border for the third time, questioned about his work and FOIA request",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-stopped-border-third-time-questioned-about-his-work-and-foia-request/,2024-01-11 17:54:55.263326+00:00,,,,"Border Stop, Equipment Search or Seizure",,work product: count of 2,,Manuel Rapalo (Freelance),,2019-02-16,False,Miami,Florida (FL),25.77427,-80.19366,"Manuel Rapalo, a freelance journalist, was stopped and pulled aside for additional screening measures while entering the United States on Feb. 16, 2019. During the screening, Rapalo was questioned about his work, and specifically his reporting along the U.S.-Mexico border. It was the third time in 2019 he was stopped by border patrol while on a reporting trip.
Rapalo, an American citizen, covered the migrant caravan from Tijuana, Mexico for Al-Jazeera. Every time he has re-entered the U.S. since the beginning of 2019, he says, he has been pulled aside for a secondary screening. Rapalo believes that a flag or marker has been placed on his travel documents because border officials have consistently stopped him only after scanning his passport.
He said he was pulled aside in February when re-entering the U.S. in Miami from Haiti. He was previously stopped for secondary screening measures when returning from Mexico on Jan. 5, when his notebooks were searched, and Jan. 26, when his notebooks and photos on his camera were searched.
“When coming into Miami, an officer scanned my passport and immediately said, ‘Hmm, I guess we have to pull you aside, Mr. Rapalo,’” he said of the Feb. 16 stop.
Although Rapalo was returning from Haiti, he was questioned about his work and reporting on the migrant caravan along the Mexican border. Then his notebooks were searched.
One of his reporter notebooks included notes and information about the process of filing a Freedom of Information Act request, which he intended to do for his work.
“The officer took exception to this, and asked me why I was interested in filing FOIAs,” Rapalo said. “I told him, because I’m a journalist, and it’s one of the tools we have.”
Rapalo said during this border stop in Miami, an official who seemed to “like him” indicated that these stops would be an ongoing problem. “He said I could try Global Entry to make this go faster next time.”
Global Entry is a government program for expediting international travel.
Like the previous incidents, Rapalo said the secondary screenings began with about 30 minutes of questioning, then he was held for 1-2 hours while his luggage was searched. During this search, however, Rapalo said a large amount of attention focused on the paper receipts in his bag and wallet.
Rapalo said that he has changed his behavior due to concerns about protecting his sources and reporting materials. He now brings new memory cards with him each time he travels for work.
CBP did not immediately respond to request for comment.
A journalist captures the movement of migrant children around the U.S.-Mexico border on Dec. 31, 2018.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,returned in full,False,None,Miami International Airport,U.S. citizen,False,False,no,yes,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,migrant caravan,United States,, 2019-02-06 16:13:52.349565+00:00,2022-08-22 19:56:17.118528+00:00,BuzzFeed News reporter aggressively questioned about reporting at passport checkpoint,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/buzzfeed-news-reporter-aggressively-questioned-about-reporting-passport-checkpoint/,2022-08-22 19:56:17.062971+00:00,,,,Border Stop,,,,David Mack (BuzzFeed News),,2019-02-03,False,New York,New York (NY),None,None,"A Customs and Border Protection agent aggressively questioned Australian BuzzFeed News reporter David Mack about his work at a passport checkpoint in New York City on Feb. 3, 2019. Days later, a CBP official apologized for the “inappropriate remarks made to him.”
Mack arrived at JFK airport from the United Kingdom, where he was renewing his U.S. work visa. According to BuzzFeed, Mack said the CBP agent at passport control saw BuzzFeed listed as his employer on his visa, and began to ask him questions.
That evening, Mack tweeted a thread about the incident:
the immigration agent at JFK just saw that i work for buzzfeed and just grilled me for 10 minutes about the cohen story which was fun given he gets to decide whether to let me back into the country
— David Mack (@davidmackau) February 4, 2019
The line of aggressive questioning focused mostly on BuzzFeed’s reporting on Robert Mueller's investigation into the Trump campaign's connections with Russia, and in particular, a Jan. 17 article about Attorney Michael Cohen.
BuzzFeed reported that CBP Assistant Commissioner for Public Affairs, Andrew Meehan, apologized to Mack directly in a telephone call on Feb. 5, and stated that “The officer’s comments do not reflect CBP’s commitment to integrity and professionalism of its workforce. In response to this incident, CBP immediately reviewed the event and has initiated the appropriate personnel inquiry and action."
Mack did not respond to request for comment, but according to BuzzFeed, Mack was grateful for the apology.
BuzzFeed News spokesperson Matt Mittenthal said: "We appreciate the government's prompt response and apology for this unfortunate incident... Customs agents do not get to weaponize their political opinions against residents legally entering the United States."
BuzzFeed's company headquarters in New York (file).
Freelance photojournalist Kitra Cahana was questioned about her journalistic work by U.S. Customs and Border Protection authorities in Detroit, Michigan, on Jan. 18, 2019.
Cahana was one of many journalists covering the Central American migrant caravan’s arrival to Mexico. According to a lawsuit in which Cahana is a plaintiff, the photojournalist was flagged for secondary screening by CBP at a preclearance location in Montreal while traveling from Canada to Mexico City via Detroit on Jan. 17. Cahana was ultimately denied entry to Mexico and put on a return flight to Detroit the following day.
According to the lawsuit, when Cahana landed and passed through customs the machine printed out a ticket with a picture of her face with a large “X” on it, indicating that she had been flagged for secondary screening.
Two plainclothes officers questioned Cahana in a private room, asking about her denial of entry to Mexico and her interactions with the Mexican authorities. The officers also asked her to confirm details of an incident that took place the day after Christmas.
“This suggested to Ms. Cahana that the officers knew more about her and her journalism work in Mexico in December 2018 than Ms. Cahana had revealed during questioning by them,” the lawsuit states.
On March 6, NBC 7 in San Diego broke the story that Department of Homeland Security officials in San Diego had created a database of journalists, activists and attorneys who were involved in some way with the migrant caravan, including Cahana. The anonymous whistleblower who brought the documents to NBC 7 told the news outlet that the DHS had created dossiers on each individual in the database.
“We are a criminal investigation agency, we’re not an intelligence agency,” the anonymous source said. “We can’t create dossiers on people and they’re creating dossiers. This is an abuse of the Border Search Authority.”
DHS confirmed to NBC 7 that the seal on the documents indicates that “the documents are a product of the International Liaison Unit (ILU), which coordinates intelligence between Mexico and the United States.”
“In the current state of journalism, it's really freelancers who are bringing so much news to the public,” Cahana told NBC 7. “And the uncertainty of having an alert placed on your passport and not knowing where and when that's going to prevent you from doing your work is really problematic.”
On Nov. 20, Cahana and four other photojournalists — all of whom were questioned about their work covering the migrant caravan and documented in the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker — filed a lawsuit against the heads of DHS, CBP and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“This lawsuit challenges U.S. border officers’ questioning of journalists about their work documenting conditions at the U.S.-Mexico border,” the suit begins “The border officers’ questioning aimed at uncovering Plaintiffs’ sources of information and their observations as journalists was unconstitutional.”
The suit seeks a ruling that such questioning violates the First Amendment and an injunction requiring the agencies to expunge any records or files about the photojournalists. The suit remains ongoing and discovery is underway.
Freelance photojournalist Kitra Cahana had an alert placed on her passport and was entered into a database authorized by the U.S. government, which collected information about her and other journalists. Cahana was ultimately denied entry into Mexico multiple times.
Cahana was one of many journalists covering the Central American migrant caravan’s arrival to Mexico. While traveling from Canada to Mexico City on Jan. 17, 2019, Cahana was pulled aside at U.S. Customs and Border Protection preclearance in Montreal due to a “flag” on her passport, she said.
According to a lawsuit in which Cahana is a plaintiff, officers questioned Cahana about her work, how it was funded, whether she was covering the caravan on assignment and how she obtained assignments. After approximately 10 minutes, she was allowed to board her flight, but upon arrival was pulled aside again due to the alert on her passport — this time, by Mexican authorities, who Cahana said separated her from her phone.
According to the lawsuit, Cahana repeatedly asked the officers why she was being held and if it was because she is a journalist. An officer responded that she was being held because of a flag with Interpol by U.S. authorities.
She was ultimately denied entry to Mexico and was forced to return to Detroit; upon landing, she was once again flagged for secondary screening.
On March 6, NBC 7 in San Diego broke the story that Department of Homeland Security officials in San Diego had created a database of journalists, activists and attorneys who were involved in some way with the migrant caravan. The anonymous whistleblower who brought the documents to NBC 7 told the news outlet that the DHS had created dossiers on each individual in the database.
“We are a criminal investigation agency, we’re not an intelligence agency,” the anonymous source said. “We can’t create dossiers on people and they’re creating dossiers. This is an abuse of the Border Search Authority.”
DHS confirmed to NBC 7 that the seal on the documents indicates that “the documents are a product of the International Liaison Unit (ILU), which coordinates intelligence between Mexico and the United States.”
“In the current state of journalism, it's really freelancers who are bringing so much news to the public,” Cahana told NBC 7. “And the uncertainty of having an alert placed on your passport and not knowing where and when that's going to prevent you from doing your work is really problematic.”
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has documented other journalists covering the migrant caravan who were targeted by U.S. authorities for additional border screening measures. Some, including Go Nakamura and Ariana Drehsler, are listed in the database.
Editor's Note: This article has been updated with information detailed in a lawsuit Kitra Cahana filed in November 2019.
Manuel Rapalo, a freelance journalist, was stopped and pulled aside for additional screening measures while entering the United States via Washington, D.C. on Jan. 5, 2019. During the screening, Rapalo was questioned about his reporting along the U.S.-Mexico border and had his notebook searched.
Rapalo, an American citizen, covered the migrant caravan from Tijuana, Mexico, for Al-Jazeera. Every time he has re-entered the U.S. since then, he says, he has been pulled aside for a secondary screening, in what Rapalo calls his “new routine.”
Rapalo believes that a flag or marker has been placed on his travel documents because border officials have consistently stopped him only after scanning his passport. The Jan. 5 secondary screening was his first time to be pulled aside—he was also stopped for additional screening on Jan. 26 and Feb. 16, where the photos on his camera were searched and he was questioned about public records requests he intends to file.
“The first question was, ‘Why did you have trouble at the border?’” Rapalo said, referring to his reporting on the US-Mexico border. “I don’t know how he could have even known that. And then they asked me about my work along the border.”
According to Rapalo, the secondary screening began with about 30 minutes of questioning, then he was held for 1-2 hours while his luggage was searched.
“They go through my reporter notebooks, receipts, and ask me about the nature of my work, and how long I’ve been doing the job and whether I do fake news,” he told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. “I tell them to Google me. It seems like they are trying to get information out of me related to the border, like gathering intelligence on why the media is interested in the border.”
Rapalo said that while reporting from Tijuana on New Year’s Eve 2018, officials with Customs and Border Protection accused him and other journalists of exploiting migrants for stories and even “bringing them here from the shelters.”
“CBP tells people at the border hoping to cross that the journalists are taking advantage of them, and that they are there to make money off of them,” Rapalo said.
He said he responded to these accusations by stating that, “I can’t speak for everyone else, but I’m just here to watch and witness.”
CBP did not immediately respond to request for comment.
Journalists for Al-Jazeera report on Jan. 1 in Mexico while covering activities along the U.S.-Mexico border.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,returned in full,False,None,"Washington, D.C.",U.S. citizen,False,False,no,yes,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,migrant caravan,United States,, 2019-02-22 15:53:32.071992+00:00,2023-11-06 19:46:43.898679+00:00,Photojournalist pulled into secondary screening at border,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-pulled-secondary-screening-border/,2023-11-06 19:46:43.792481+00:00,,,"(2019-11-20 00:00:00+00:00) Photojournalists sue DHS, agencies after questioned about caravan coverage",Border Stop,,,,Mark Abramson (Freelance),,2019-01-05,False,San Diego,California (CA),32.71571,-117.16472,"Mark Abramson, a freelance photojournalist, was pulled into secondary screening by U.S. border officials while returning from Mexico on Jan. 5, 2019.
Abramson, a U.S. citizen, told the Committee to Protect Journalists that border agents looked through his belongings, including his notebook, at the El Chaparral port of entry at San Diego, California.
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection official then brought Abramson into a separate room, where he was asked to leave his bag and phone behind. The Intercept reported that in there, he was questioned for about 30 minutes about assignments and payments he received as a freelancer. The official also asked a series of questions related to the migrant caravan, including whether Abramson knew “who is stirring up stuff in the camp” or of groups helping the migrants.
Abramson told CPJ he was disturbed by the line of questions. “I’m not an informant, my job is to inform the public,” he said.
CBP did not respond to a request for comment.
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer watches a group of migrants from Central America seeking asylum as they search for a place to cross over the U.S. border wall in Tijuana, Mexico, in December 2018.
",None,None,None,None,False,1:19-cv-06570,['ONGOING'],Civil,None,False,None,San Ysidro Port of Entry,U.S. citizen,False,False,no,yes,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,migrant caravan,United States,, 2019-02-21 18:50:06.678337+00:00,2023-11-06 19:47:20.207092+00:00,Photojournalist questioned at U.S.-Mexico border for second time,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-questioned-us-mexico-border-second-time/,2023-11-06 19:47:20.113165+00:00,,,"(2019-11-20 00:00:00+00:00) Photojournalist sues DHS, agencies after questioned about caravan coverage",Border Stop,,,,Ariana Drehsler (Freelance),,2019-01-02,False,San Diego,California (CA),32.71571,-117.16472,"Freelance photojournalist Ariana Drehsler was stopped for a secondary screening and questioned while entering the United States from Mexico on Jan. 2, 2019.
Drehsler arrived around 11 p.m. on Jan. 2 at San Diego’s San Ysidro port of entry from Mexico, where she had been documenting the caravan of Central American immigrants seeking asylum in the U.S. for wire service United Press International.
Similar to a border stop at the same port of entry just days before, she was stopped and questioned by three officials wearing civilian clothes.
“They were the same two people from the first time, as well as another,” Drehsler said. “They said, ‘Oh, we brought a new person,’ and they were like, ‘We mentioned you to this other guy.’” She said the officials made a point to say she would not have to wait as long as last time.
“Before they started asking me questions, I said I was not in Tijuana on New Year’s Day, because I had a feeling this would happen,” she said, referring to an incident the day before, where U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents had fired at migrants attempting to climb a wall to enter into the U.S.
Drehsler said that one of the officials replied, “You took the words right out of my mouth.”
In an attempt to shift the conversation away from the journalists covering the migrant caravan, Drehsler said she brought up the presence of activists, such as those present in Tijuana from Seattle.
“[Border officials] mentioned the new caravan, and asked if the people in the new one understand how hard it is for people to seek asylum at the border. I said I had no idea. They asked about the organizers and activists and said their presence has dropped off. I didn’t say anything, I didn’t know.”
Just before leaving the secondary screening and entering the U.S., Drehsler said the border agents asked her whether she rented or owned her home.
Drehsler told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she was confused about the relevance of the question. “[The agent] said she just wanted to know for yourself,” she said. “I said I rented.”
Like her previous border stop on Dec. 30, 2018, none of her belongings, notes, or devices were searched. A few days after this incident, Drehsler would be stopped a third time.
“I didn’t have anything to hide, but I still felt weird answering their questions,” she said. “I felt like an informant.”
CBP did not immediately respond to request for comment.
In early December 2018, El Barretal shelter in Tijuana, Mexico, housed more than 3,000 migrants from Central America.
",None,None,None,None,False,1:19-cv-06570,['ONGOING'],Civil,None,False,None,San Ysidro Port of Entry,U.S. citizen,False,False,no,yes,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,migrant caravan,United States,, 2019-02-15 18:01:00.013345+00:00,2024-01-08 16:51:19.595327+00:00,Photojournalist stopped and questioned at US-Mexico border,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-stopped-and-questioned-us-mexican-border/,2024-01-08 16:51:19.465847+00:00,,,,Border Stop,,,,Emilio Fraile (Freelance),,2019-01-01,True,San Diego,California (CA),32.71571,-117.16472,"Spanish freelance photojournalist Emilio Fraile was questioned in secondary screening by U.S. authorities while traveling from Tijuana, Mexico, to San Diego, California in January 2019.
Fraile told the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) that he had been working in Mexico for several months, three weeks of which was spent reporting from Tijuana on the migrant caravan. While attempting to enter the United States, Fraile was stopped and questioned about his work for approximately a half hour.
The questions, Fraile told CPJ, included whether or not Americans were “collaborating” with the migrant caravan. “They were always trying to get information from us,” he said.
When border officials asked to see his photographs, Fraile said that he had already deleted them.
Fraile told CPJ about an additional interaction with U.S. border authorities during his time working in Mexico, in which an agent asked him how many migrants were hidden in a certain area.
In another case, a group of border agents and several others, wearing what Fraile said appeared to be military outfits, approached a group of photojournalists around New Years. Shining a light at them, the agents repeatedly asked, “Where is Emilio?”
Fraile told CPJ he was not sure how they knew his name, and that he felt it was an attempt to intimidate him.
The Intercept reported that Fraile and other Spanish photojournalists had their passports photographed on Jan. 3 by Mexican authorities, who informed the journalists that they share information with the U.S. police.
While covering the migrant caravan in Mexico, freelance photojournalist Ariana Drehsler has been stopped for secondary screenings each time she has re-entered the United States since December 2018.
At around 12:15 a.m. on Dec. 30, 2018, Drehsler arrived at the San Ysidro port of entry in San Diego to cross back into the United States. She had been covering the migrant caravan for wire service United Press International. She would be stopped again on Jan. 2 and Jan. 4.
Drehsler said that the U.S. border agent who had her passport asked her a couple of questions before informing her that she would need to go to secondary screening.
“A man and a woman in civilian clothes came up to me and took me into another room. They asked me what I was doing in Tijuana, who I work for, what other outlets I’ve worked for, my editor’s phone number,” Drehsler said. “They also asked about my background as a photographer.”
She said that she was asked about what she knew about the caravan, people crossing the border illegally, and details about the shelters for migrants in Mexico.
“I didn’t hide anything, but I also didn’t give them information like the names of fellow journalists. And they also didn’t ask me for specific names.”
Drehsler told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the border officials informed her that her passport had been “flagged,” but they did not know why, and they indicated that she might want to budget more time for border crossings since she could be stopped again.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents did not search Drehsler’s notes, electronic devices, or baggage, and she was permitted to bring her phone into questioning. She left the port of entry and entered the United States around 1:25 a.m.
CBP did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Unlike the U.S. side, where onlookers are supposed to keep a distance, those at Las Playas de Tijuana in Mexico are allowed to get close to the border wall that separates the two countries.
",None,None,None,None,False,1:19-cv-06570,['ONGOING'],Civil,None,False,None,San Ysidro Port of Entry,U.S. citizen,False,False,no,yes,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,migrant caravan,United States,, 2019-02-15 18:10:00.072279+00:00,2022-08-22 20:04:41.151541+00:00,Student photojournalist stopped at US-Mexico border for secondary screening,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/two-photography-students-stopped-us-mexico-border-secondary-screening/,2022-08-22 20:04:41.075237+00:00,,,"(2019-11-20 00:00:00+00:00) Photojournalists sue DHS, agencies after questioned about caravan coverage","Border Stop, Equipment Search or Seizure",,camera: count of 1,,Bing Guan (Independent),,2018-12-29,False,San Diego,California (CA),32.71571,-117.16472,"Bing Guan and Go Nakamura, American photojournalists, were pulled into secondary screening on Dec. 29, 2018, while driving through the San Ysidro point of entry, a border crossing between San Diego, California and Tijuana, Mexico.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers separated Guan, who was driving his car, and Nakamura and questioned them individually. Guan told the Committee to Protect Journalists that he was questioned by two plainclothes CBP agents, one of whom produced a tear sheet with photographs of people who had been around the caravan. Guan told CPJ that the agents showed him two or three sheets of photo arrays “with between 9 and 12 photos” on each page. These included some photos that appeared like mugshots and others that seemed like surveillance photos.
Guan told The Intercept that he recognized two individuals as anti-migrant activists and thought that a third was associated with Pueblo Sin Fronteras, an immigrant rights group. Guan said that the CPB agents referred to the people in the photos as “instigators.”
Guan was asked to open his camera and show photographs, which he did, reasoning that it would be too dark to identify anyone, according to the account in The Intercept.
Likewise, Nakamura told CPJ that a CBP officer asked him to show his photographs to prove he was a photographer. The officer then showed Nakamura photographs of 20 people and asked whether he had seen them in Mexico. Nakamura said that he was not given an explanation of who the people were.
Two days prior to the secondary screening, Nakamura and Guan were stopped by Mexican municipal police officers who photographed their passports.
A few weeks before he was pulled into secondary screening, Guan had driven through the same San Ysidro port of entry without any issues, he said.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents look toward the Mexican border at the San Ysidro border in San Diego, California in November 2018.
",None,None,None,None,False,1:19-cv-06570,['ONGOING'],Civil,None,False,None,San Ysidro Port of Entry,U.S. citizen,False,False,no,yes,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,"migrant caravan, student journalism",United States,, 2022-01-14 15:59:14.344475+00:00,2022-08-22 20:05:12.469502+00:00,Photojournalist stopped at US-Mexico border for secondary screening,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-stopped-at-us-mexico-border-for-secondary-screening/,2022-08-22 20:05:12.373002+00:00,,,"(2019-11-20 00:00:00+00:00) Photojournalists sue DHS, agencies after questioned about caravan coverage","Border Stop, Equipment Search or Seizure",,camera: count of 1,,Go Nakamura (Freelance),,2018-12-29,False,San Diego,California (CA),32.71571,-117.16472,"Go Nakamura and Bing Guan, American photojournalists, were pulled into secondary screening on Dec. 29, 2018, while driving through the San Ysidro point of entry, a border crossing between San Diego, California and Tijuana, Mexico.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers separated Guan, who was driving his car, and Nakamura and questioned them individually. Guan told the Committee to Protect Journalists that he was questioned by two plainclothes CBP agents, one of whom produced a tear sheet with photographs of people who had been around the caravan. Guan told CPJ that the agents showed him two or three sheets of photo arrays “with between 9 and 12 photos” on each page. These included some photos that appeared like mugshots and others that seemed like surveillance photos.
Guan told The Intercept that he recognized two individuals as anti-migrant activists and thought that a third was associated with Pueblo Sin Fronteras, an immigrant rights group. Guan said that the CPB agents referred to the people in the photos as “instigators.”
Guan was asked to open his camera and show photographs, which he did, reasoning that it would be too dark to identify anyone, according to the account in The Intercept.
Likewise, Nakamura told CPJ that a CBP officer asked him to show his photographs to prove he was a photographer. The officer then showed Nakamura photographs of 20 people and asked whether he had seen them in Mexico. Nakamura said that he was not given an explanation of who the people were.
Two days prior to the secondary screening, Nakamura and Guan were stopped by Mexican municipal police officers who photographed their passports.
A few weeks before he was pulled into secondary screening, Guan had driven through the same San Ysidro port of entry without any issues, he said.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents participate in a readiness exercise in January at the San Ysidro port of entry with Mexico in San Diego, California.
",None,None,None,None,False,1:19-cv-06570,['ONGOING'],Civil,None,False,None,San Ysidro Port of Entry,U.S. citizen,False,False,no,yes,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,migrant caravan,United States,, 2019-09-06 13:37:36.207400+00:00,2024-01-08 19:23:47.034870+00:00,Independent filmmaker stopped while crossing U.S.-Mexico border,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/independent-filmmaker-stopped-while-crossing-us-mexico-border/,2024-01-08 19:23:46.943541+00:00,,,,Border Stop,,,,Anonymous documentary journalist 2 (Independent),,2018-12-28,False,San Diego,California (CA),32.71571,-117.16472,"An independent documentary filmmaker was stopped at the U.S.-Mexico border twice by U.S. officials while following the migrant caravan for a film project.
The foreign-born citizen is based in the U.S. and asked to not have his name used for fear of reprisal.
The filmmaker told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that on Dec. 28, 2018, he was crossing the San Ysidro border near San Diego, California, by car when Mexican authorities pointed out that his temporary work visa had been mis-stamped. The authorities let him cross, however, into the United States.
On the U.S. side, the filmmaker went into the U.S. Customs and Border Protection office to show an officer the error, and asked him to correct it. The officer started to until another agent said of him, “I know that guy—he’s in the video at the border.”
The officer was referring to a video taken of the journalist filming at the border. The video seemed to have been taken from a car, and in it, the filmmaker was clearly recognizable.
“I was following a family of migrants,” the filmmaker said, “And border patrol was trying to trip me up, trying to get me away from the family I was following.”
When CBP took away the family and pushed the filmmaker back, he said he gave them no resistance.
While inside the Customs office, a CBP officer told the filmmaker to sit down, that he’d “be there for hours,” and “a special team was going to come in.”
The officers continued re-watching the video, and the filmmaker waited for nearly 2 hours. Finally, he said, there was a shift change in the office and the next officer on duty cleared him to go.
A week later, while returning to Mexico through the same San Ysidro border, the filmmaker was stopped again, and the car he was in and his phone were searched.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker has detailed nearly a dozen border stops of journalists following the migrant caravan. In March, San Diego’s NBC 7 investigative news team received leaked documents showing the U.S. government had been tracking and keeping dossiers on American journalists, lawyers and activists involved with the caravan. The news station also received an internal email showing the order to increase surveillance came from the head of the city’s Department of Homeland Security.
Freelance multimedia reporter Brooke Binkowski was stopped by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers while she was re-entering the United States on Nov. 24, 2018, the fourth time in six months.
Binkowski told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she was returning from a reporting trip to visit the migrant caravan moving that month, and was crossing later in the day than she normally would, which worried her.
“I knew heading back there was going to be a problem,” she said.
The Tracker has documented other cases where CBP officers targeted journalists covering migrant caravans for questioning about their reporting and sources. Freelance photojournalist Ariana Drehsler told the Tracker that when officers asked about her reporting on the caravan and about organizers and activists, “I felt like an informant.”
Binkowski told the Tracker that while the officers did not ask to search her phone and were less aggressive than during her previous stops, it felt like an “escalation.”
“They kept me: no threats, no yelling. But that was almost worse because if felt like they were just keeping me because they could,” Binkowski said.
CBP officers held her for about an hour, Binkowski said, questioning her about where she had been in Tijuana and about her work as a journalist before letting her cross into the U.S. It was their “mindless exercise of power,” she told the Tracker, that pushed her to stop crossing the border. She hasn’t been back since this trip.
“In the end I stopped crossing not because of myself, though now I think it was prudent,” Binkowski said, “But because I was worried about potentially getting other people’s names on a list, and that kind of responsibility in this time is just too much.”
While covering the migrant caravan, freelance multimedia reporter Brooke Binkowski was stopped by U.S. Customs and Border Protection multiple times.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,San Ysidro Port of Entry,U.S. citizen,False,True,no,yes,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,migrant caravan,United States,, 2019-08-02 18:39:51.167748+00:00,2024-01-09 16:29:39.257224+00:00,Journalist questioned at San Ysidro border crossing for third time,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-questioned-san-ysidro-border-crossing-third-time/,2024-01-09 16:29:39.159205+00:00,,,,Border Stop,,,,Brooke Binkowski (Freelance),,2018-08-22,False,San Diego,California (CA),32.71571,-117.16472,"Freelance multimedia reporter Brooke Binkowski was stopped by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers while she was re-entering the United States on Aug. 22, 2018, the third time in two months that she was directed to secondary screening.
Binkowski, a U.S. citizen, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she was crossing the border in the afternoon, around the same time she normally drives back to San Diego. As with previous stops, both she and her car were searched. When she told them she was a journalist, she was questioned about her reporting.
“They made me get out of my car and made me keep my phone in my pocket,” Binkowski told the Tracker. She said that while neither her phone nor any other electronic device has been searched during any of her experiences in secondary screening, it remains “a huge, huge fear.”
“[It’s] something for which I have my stepdad, a lawyer, on speed dial, but which has not yet happened,” Binkowski said. “But, I have not crossed with my laptop since 2017 out of those same concerns.”
Binkowski told the Tracker that her frustration with wait times when crossing the border—which is a mere 15 minute drive from her home in San Diego—pushed her to apply for Global Entry, NEXUS and SENTRI in the early 2000s. Each is a system by which travelers that are deemed low-risk through rigorous background checks or in-person interviews are pre-approved in order to be granted expedited clearance.
Despite having these pre-approvals, Binkowski said she was detained for approximately an hour during this screening before she was permitted to enter the U.S.
Freelance journalist Brooke Binkowski, right, remained in secondary screening at the U.S.-Mexico border for more than an hour while she and her car were searched.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,San Ysidro Port of Entry,U.S. citizen,False,True,no,yes,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,,United States,, 2019-08-02 18:38:20.530807+00:00,2024-01-09 16:29:58.268624+00:00,"Freelance multimedia reporter stopped at San Ysidro border crossing, questioned about reporting",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/freelance-multimedia-reporter-stopped-san-ysidro-border-crossing-questioned-about-reporting/,2024-01-09 16:29:58.189861+00:00,,,,Border Stop,,,,Brooke Binkowski (Freelance),,2018-07-01,True,San Diego,California (CA),32.71571,-117.16472,"Beginning in 2017, freelance multimedia reporter Brooke Binkowski noticed she was sent to secondary screening whenever she crossed the U.S.-Mexico border.
“The first few times it was a cursory inspection so I chalked it up to increased security and border agents flexing their muscles more or less because they could,” Binkowski, a U.S. citizen, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
She said she then became concerned about her treatment in July 2018, when she was pulled into secondary screening as she re-entered via the San Ysidro port of entry. Binkowski told the Tracker that she had been in Mexico, in part, “hunting down documents.”
While she can’t remember the exact date of the incident, Binkowski told the Tracker that her mid-afternoon crossing in July 2018 was unusual, and struck her as “security theater.”
“I was yelled at, intimidated by men with guns on their hips,” she said. “One man got right in my face and screamed that my attitude was fucking shit.”
After she was directed to secondary, Binkowski said she was given a cursory inspection and asked to empty her pockets, but U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers did not ask her to unlock any electronic devices for search.
Officers did question her about where she had been in Tijuana, Binkowski said. When she told them she was a journalist, she was questioned about her reporting.
Binkowski told the Tracker that her car was searched twice before she was permitted to leave. She estimated that she was prevented from crossing the border for approximately an hour and a half before being permitted to enter the U.S.
Binkowski would be stopped each time she crossed the border for the remainder of the year. Read those incidents here.
Brooke Binkowski, a freelance multimedia reporter, realized in 2017 that she was being pulled into secondary screening each time she crossed the U.S.-Mexico border.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,San Ysidro Port of Entry,U.S. citizen,False,True,no,yes,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,,United States,, 2019-08-02 18:39:00.491988+00:00,2023-11-06 19:51:49.786264+00:00,"Journalist stopped at the border multiple times, told passport is flagged",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-stopped-border-told-passport-flagged/,2023-11-06 19:51:49.703289+00:00,,,,Border Stop,,,,Brooke Binkowski (Freelance),,2018-07-01,True,San Diego,California (CA),32.71571,-117.16472,"Freelance multimedia reporter Brooke Binkowski was stopped a second time by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in July 2018 as she was re-entering the United States at the San Ysidro port of entry.
As with her other stops, Binkowski told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she was directed to a secondary screening area to have both her person and her vehicle searched. Binkowski told the Tracker that she had been in Mexico, in part, “hunting down documents.”
Officers questioned her about where she had been in Tijuana, Binkowski said, and when she told them she was a journalist, she was questioned about her reporting.
Binkowski, a U.S. citizen, told the Tracker that she felt her treatment by the CBP officers was unusual and unacceptable.
“They would go through my stuff and then they would put their hands near their guns or where their guns are supposed to be, they would get in my face,” Binkowski said. She also noted that the exclusively male officers treated her, “a small, 5-foot-3 skinny woman,” as though she was a physical threat.
“For them to be treating me as though I was physically intimidating for them to the point where they would shout things like, ‘Back away, ma’am, you’re going to have to back away! Get back!’ or ‘Don’t give me that attitude,’ it was not acceptable,” she said.
Binkowski told the Tracker she asked to speak to a supervising officer about her treatment. The officer informed her that there was a flag on her passport but that he could not provide any information on what it was for because he did not have access to the details.
He advised her to file a Freedom of Information Act request on her own name, which she did in May 2019. Binkowski told the Tracker that she put off filing the request as other issues took priority and she was uncertain whether she truly wanted to know the answer.
In a letter dated July 11 that Binkowski shared with the Tracker, CBP acknowledged its receipt of her request and advised her that “due to the increasing number of FOIA requests received by this office, we may encounter some delay in processing your request.” It further stated that “the average time to process a FOIA request related to ‘travel/border incidents’ is a minimum of 3-6 months.”
Freelance multimedia reporter Brooke Binkowski, shown here in 2015, was stopped multiple times while crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,San Ysidro Port of Entry,U.S. citizen,False,True,no,yes,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,,United States,, 2019-09-16 14:42:24.238788+00:00,2024-01-26 19:03:54.117728+00:00,"Washington Post journalist asked about political views by CBP, told to ‘fall in line’",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/two-journalists-asked-about-political-views-by-cbp-told-to-fall-in-line/,2024-01-26 19:03:54.028815+00:00,,,,Border Stop,,,,Ann Gerhart (The Washington Post),,2018-06-16,False,Newark,New Jersey (NJ),40.73566,-74.17237,"Ann Gerhart, a senior editor-at-large for The Washington Post, and Michael Sokolove, a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, were questioned about their politics and work by a Customs and Border Protection officer when returning to the United States on June 16, 2018.
Sokolove told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he and his spouse, Gerhart, had landed at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey after a trip to the Caribbean island of Anguilla. Sokolove said that they both had listed “journalist” as their profession on their immigration forms, as usual.
They approached the customs desk together and handed the CBP officer their immigration forms, Gerhart said. She told the Tracker that the officer asked the usual questions of “Where were you?” and “What do you do?” But when they said they were journalists, Gerhart said, he asked who they worked for.
When they told him their media organizations, Gerhart said the agent responded that it was a “dangerous time to be a journalist.”
A remark, Gerhart said, she didn’t read as sympathetic.
Sokolove said that the officer might have asked a few other questions about their work, but that the next thing he remembers distinctly is the officer asking them what they thought of President Donald Trump.
“We both said a version of, ‘It’s not our job to have opinions about President Trump or to express them. We’re journalists, we just report the news,’” Sokolove told the Tracker. “Then I made the mistake of saying, ‘I think this family separation [policy] is really troublesome.’ I think that’s the word I used: I said I was troubled by it.”
At that point, Sokolove said, the officer became “very aggressive.”
“He said, ‘Well, I think you really ought to give him a chance and this country has to come together.’ And he just started expressing his own political views that the press was too aggressive with the president, too critical of the president, and we really ought to ‘fall in line and come together.’”
Gerhart told the Tracker that they passed through the checkpoint without further incident, but after the interaction “I was initially flabbergasted and then after that I was shaken by it.”
“I was quite taken aback to be coming back into the United States as a US-citizen—or really anyone—and be asked for what I took to be some kind of political fealty, if you will.”
Sokolove said the interaction left him shocked as well.
“I just found it appalling,” Sokolove said, “that upon coming back into this country with my U.S. passport that because I was a journalist I would be asked by an immigration officer what I thought about the president and then told exactly how we ought to be writing about him.”
Michael Sokolove, a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, and Ann Gerhart, a senior editor-at-large for The Washington Post, were questioned about their politics and work by a Customs and Border Protection officer when returning to the United States on June 16, 2018.
Sokolove told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he and his spouse, Gerhart, had landed at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey after a trip to the Caribbean island of Anguilla. Sokolove said that they both had listed “journalist” as their profession on their immigration forms, as usual.
They approached the customs desk together and handed the CBP officer their immigration forms, Gerhart said. She told the Tracker that the officer asked the usual questions of “Where were you?” and “What do you do?” But when they said they were journalists, Gerhart said, he asked who they worked for.
When they told him their media organizations, Gerhart said the agent responded that it was a “dangerous time to be a journalist.”
A remark, Gerhart said, she didn’t read as sympathetic.
Sokolove said that the officer might have asked a few other questions about their work, but that the next thing he remembers distinctly is the officer asking them what they thought of President Donald Trump.
“We both said a version of, ‘It’s not our job to have opinions about President Trump or to express them. We’re journalists, we just report the news,’” Sokolove told the Tracker. “Then I made the mistake of saying, ‘I think this family separation [policy] is really troublesome.’ I think that’s the word I used: I said I was troubled by it.”
At that point, Sokolove said, the officer became “very aggressive.”
“He said, ‘Well, I think you really ought to give him a chance and this country has to come together.’ And he just started expressing his own political views that the press was too aggressive with the president, too critical of the president, and we really ought to ‘fall in line and come together.’”
Gerhart told the Tracker that they passed through the checkpoint without further incident, but after the interaction “I was initially flabbergasted and then after that I was shaken by it.”
“I was quite taken aback to be coming back into the United States as a US-citizen—or really anyone—and be asked for what I took to be some kind of political fealty, if you will.”
Sokolove said the interaction left him shocked as well.
“I just found it appalling,” Sokolove said, “that upon coming back into this country with my U.S. passport that because I was a journalist I would be asked by an immigration officer what I thought about the president and then told exactly how we ought to be writing about him.”
Photojournalist John Rudoff was stopped for secondary screening at U.S. Customs and Border Protection preclearance in Vancouver, Canada, on Dec. 28, 2017, while en route from Bangladesh.
Rudoff told the Committee to Protect Journalists that ever since he took multiple trips to Greece following the refugee crisis and traveled to Cuba, he has been stopped for secondary screening when reentering the U.S. He said the screenings happen whether he is traveling alone or with family.
Rudoff said he was traveling light in December 2017, but was carrying all of his photography gear with him. After passing through preclearance screening, Rudoff was taken aside to a waiting area to wait for his name to be called. Rudoff said he seemed to be the only U.S. citizen directed there.
When his turn came up, officers went through his bags and patted him down. Rudoff told CPJ that the pat down was not irregular, as his hip replacement sets of alarms on many airport security systems.
Rudoff said that the officer searching his bags did not go through his cellphone or laptop, which he keeps encrypted and powered down when he travels. Officers did ask him to turn his two cameras on and off, Rudoff added, but did not ask him to go through the photos and did not go through the photos themselves.
The screenings, Rudoff said, were frequent enough that he learned to plan ahead for them. “And it’s obviously targeted, but it’s so predictable that I just factor it in.”
Rudoff told CPJ that none of the CBP officers who have searched him in secondary screening have offered an explanation as to why he is so often flagged for additional searches. “I have no choice, at least so far,” Rudoff said.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker includes incidents only from 2017 forward.
Latif Nasser, a reporter for New York Public Radio WNYC, was stopped for additional screening while crossing the U.S.-Mexico border as part of a series about border patrol in December 2017.
Nasser, then a U.S. permanent resident, told the Committee to Protect Journalists that he was recording b-roll, or additional background sounds of him crossing the bridge from the U.S. to Mexico and back in El Paso, Texas. Nasser said that he was wearing his headphones and was holding his recorder with a mic on it as he was returning to the U.S.-side of the border.
Nasser noticed a sign posted at the U.S. facility which specified that cameras, video cameras and cellphones were not allowed — Nasser said he assumed that audio recording was fine. He told CPJ that he continued recording throughout handing over his passport and having “very normal” exchanges with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer.
When the officer saw his recorder, Nasser said the officer “freaked out.” Nasser said the officer asked what it was and whether he was currently recording, to which he responded yes. Nasser told CPJ that the officer then effectively shut down to entire line, ordered Nasser to stop recording and called for other officers to assist him.
The officers directed Nasser to a secondary screening room where they had him wait with another man, and placed his belongings — including his audio recorder, passport and green card — on a desk in his eyesight but out of his reach. While the officers examined his belongings, they did not play any files on the recorder.
Nasser waited in the screening room for approximately an hour, he said, with officers periodically approaching him and asking the same questions each time: Who was he, what was he doing, what was his reporting on, and why was he recording?
After the fourth or fifth time he was asked the same series of questions, Nasser said he told the officers that he needed to leave and that he knew the problem was with the minute-long recording of his interaction with the officer. Nasser told CPJ he offered to delete it, and after some awkward fumbling he did so.
At the end of the encounter, which Nasser said lasted around 2 to 2.5 hours, a final officer — who was wearing a kevlar vest with “DHS” printed on it — approached him and said that he hadn’t technically done anything wrong, but that his actions had been suspicious.
“We were just doing our jobs,” Nasser recalled the officer saying. While the first few officers were incredibly angry that he had been recording, Nasser said, when the final officer found out it was just audio recording, with no video, “he made it seem like it was no big deal.”
Alastair Jamieson, a journalist for NBC News, was detained for hours and repeatedly referred to as “fake news” by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer when arriving in Miami, Florida, on Nov. 30, 2017.
Before leaving for the United States, a Homeland Security official, whom Jamieson identified as William Fernandez, had questioned him and searched his bag before allowing him to board at London’s Heathrow Airport. There Jamieson noticed his boarding pass was flagged with “SSSS.”
Jamieson told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that his boarding pass had often been flagged with the marker used to signal travelers for secondary screening, which he believed was due to his reporting trips to the Middle East and unusual travel patterns. He added that since registering with CBP’s Global Entry trusted traveler program a few years before, he had not been flagged.
Jamieson told the Tracker that after he landed at Miami International Airport at around 7:30pm, the automated machines at U.S. Customs flagged his picture with a red ‘X’ and he was directed into the normal processing line, a first for him since applying for Global Entry.
“When I got to an agent, he immediately sent me off, without explanation, to the secondary questioning area, so I knew I was in for a long wait,” Jamieson said.
The secondary screening, Jamieson told the Tracker, was “wild.”
“I had expected a long wait,” he said. “I had not expected to be barked at by CBP agents who were trying to create a kind of ‘boot camp’ atmosphere in which everyone was intimidated and in fear of giving the wrong answer.”
The CBP officer, whom Jamieson identified as Officer Jones, confiscated his phone and kept it out of his view. Jamieson noted that because he had a screen lock, he does not believe it was accessed or searched. Officer Jones questioned him over the course of an hour, repeatedly using the term “fake news” in reference to his job and asking inappropriate questions about his romantic life.
“She knew my job without asking, and had clearly Googled my social media profile. She would ask why someone ‘with a good job at an American company’ would visit ‘these kind of countries,’” Jamieson said, referring to Turkey and other Middle Eastern states. “She then went through the list of my Facebook friends to ask which ones were friends or which ones I’d had sex with, or both.”
Totally. I couldn't believe the venom of these particular officers. They also read the list of my Facebook friends out loud in the waiting/holding area and asked me to confirm which ones I had slept with. The rules allow it...
— Alastair Jamieson (@alastairjam) October 5, 2019
Officer Jones also asked Jamieson to write out a list of countries he had visited—information listed in both the Global Entry and ESTA visa systems—but refused to give him a pen, and waited for him to borrow one from another detained traveler.
“Having written out a list of countries, she looked at it, said ‘That’s ridiculous,’ and ripped up the paper in front of me,” Jamieson said. Shortly after, she told him to take his passport and “get out.”
Jamieson was directed to the specialized baggage inspection area where an officer he identified as Officer Yueng mumbled a disparaging remark and questioned whether Jamieson was a cop or insurance salesman. When Jamieson said he was a journalist, the officer responded, “Ugh, worse,” and waved him away without searching his bag.
Jamieson filed a complaint with CBP on Dec. 6, detailing the encounters and expressing his frustration with a process he said was unnecessary and avoidable.
“Assertive and robust interrogation is a useful and important tactic for agents in keeping the US border secure. Yelling idiotic and vague questions, hurling insults and generally acting like elementary school bullies is neither effective nor an appropriate use of federal resources,” Jamieson wrote in his complaint.
CBP responded to Jamieson’s complaint on Dec. 19, writing, “Please allow me to express regret for any conduct that may have been perceived as rude or unprofessional during CBP processing. CBP takes allegations of employee misconduct very seriously and has instituted policies pertaining to abuses of authority.”
As a matter of policy, CBP does not disclose the outcomes of internal investigations or disciplinary actions taken against personnel.
In a 2019 interview, Jamieson told the Tracker that while he no longer works for NBC News, this incident has stayed with him. He said, “I haven’t been back to the U.S. since. Not exclusively because of this incident, but I’m certainly not in a hurry to return.”
Alastair Jamieson, here on a reporting assignment in Hungary in May 2018, said he was harassed and called ‘fake news’ by a U.S. Customs Border and Protection agent last time he entered the United States.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,Miami International Airport,U.S. non-resident,False,False,no,yes,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,None,,,United Kingdom,, 2019-11-12 19:18:05.306954+00:00,2024-02-06 17:51:02.300107+00:00,Photojournalist stopped second time by CBP in less than a year,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/photojournalist-stopped-second-time-cbp-less-year/,2024-02-06 17:51:02.213633+00:00,,,,Border Stop,,,,David Degner (Freelance),,2017-10-25,False,Boston,Massachusetts (MA),42.35843,-71.05977,"Freelance photojournalist David Degner was flagged for secondary screening multiple times while flying between Cairo, Egypt, and the United States.
Degner, a U.S. citizen who was working out of Cairo, told the Committee to Protect Journalists that he was pulled aside after disembarking in Boston, Massachusetts, on Oct. 25, 2017. He said he sent out a Facebook notification saying that he was being stopped and interviewed and then signed out of all of his social media profiles.
Degner told CPJ that he acted to prevent another search of his phone and social media profiles like had occurred during a December 2016 screening. At that stop, Customs and Border Protection had pulled Degner aside for secondary screening at preclearance in Toronto, Canada on a trip from Cairo to the United States.
Degner said that during the December stop, he waited for half an hour before he was shown to an interview room where an officer was already seated. The officer asked him to unlock and hand over his phone.
At first, Degner refused, asking if the officer had the right to search his phone. Degner said that the officer handed him a pre-printed sheet saying that they have the right to examine anything that is coming into the United States. He asked what would happen if he refused and the officer told him that they would hold onto the phone until CBP could unlock it themselves, implying that it would be confiscated for weeks or months.
“I’m used to these types of security procedures from Egypt,” Degner told CPJ. He requested that the officer remain in the room while searching the phone—which he did—which took 10-15 minutes.
Degner said that when he asked why his phone was being searched anyway, the officer responded, “Just be glad I’m not asking to search your laptop and everything else, too.”
When he was flagged a second time less than a year later in Boston, Degner sent the Facebook notification and signed out of his profiles. Officers did not ask him to unlock his phone during the second stop, however.
Degner told CPJ that on both occasions he asked the officers why he had been selected for secondary screening, and on both occasions they said they couldn’t tell him why.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker includes incidents only from 2017 forward.
A reporter — who asked that his name not be used for fear of reprisal — was flagged for secondary screening in New York City while traveling to Istanbul, Turkey, on Sept. 30, 2017.
The reporter, who is a U.S. citizen, told the Committee to Protect Journalists that he was taken aside by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer while departing from JFK International Airport.
After asking the routine questions about addresses and contact information, the reporter said the CBP officer asked about his work. The questioning included what topics the reporter covers and whether he uses the messaging applications WhatsApp or Viber. The reporter also told CPJ that the officer asked him to sign a paper documenting how much currency he was traveling with.
During the questioning, the reporter asked the CBP officer his name. The reporter said the question seemed to make the officer very uncomfortable, and the officer tried to backpedal to avoid disclosing it. The reporter insisted and the officer eventually gave his name.
Citing his frustration with being stopped despite belonging to CBP’s Trusted Travelers Programs, which are designed to expedite security, the reporter told CPJ that after this incident he filed a Freedom of Information Act and Privacy Act request. He received a response within six weeks that showed that he had been targeted for additional screening but not why.
In addition to having Global Entry, the reporter said, he now also carries a printed copy of his FOIA when he travels.
“It’s clear to me that these interrogations really depend on the officer, what questions they ask,” the reporter told CPJ.
Zainab Merchant, a graduate student at Harvard University and founder of online publication Zainab Rights, was stopped for secondary screening by Customs and Border Protection officers in Orlando, Florida, on Sept. 16, 2017.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a complaint with the Department of Homeland Security on Merchant’s behalf. According to the organizations, Merchant was returning from a personal trip to Morocco with her husband when they were both redirected to secondary screening.
As was the case with Merchant’s previous stop catalogued by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, the officer who questioned her asked about her article on her experience crossing the border in 2016 and asked what she aimed to accomplish by writing it. According to the complaint, the officer also said, “Please don’t write anything bad about us.”
The complaint also details that a CBP officer overheard Merchant speaking with another woman about their experiences while waiting in the screening area and reportedly said to them that when you fly, you sign off all your rights. “Do what you want, get a lawyer, get the courts involved, and do the redress, but you’ll never be able to get off,” the officer is quoted as saying.
Merchant and her husband were held in secondary screening for approximately three hours before being released.
Merchant did not respond to the Tracker’s requests for comment.
The complaint states that three months after the incident, Merchant received a voicemail from a DHS officer who identified himself as Agent Newcomb. He said, in regards to her security experiences every time she travels, that he “would like to come up with a solution that could make everyone happy.”
Merchant later met with Agent Newcomb and another officer who identified himself as Agent Jerome. The officers asked if she knew anyone who had been “radicalized,” hinting that if she provided them information they could resolve her travel issues. She declined to meet with them again.
The complaint states that the years of heightened security screenings has had a severe impact on Merchant. “She avoids flying if possible and experiences extreme frustration, anxiety, and humiliation when she does fly,” the complaint says.
In a 2018 opinion article in The Washington Post, Merchant wrote that her experiences being targeted for prolonged secondary screenings exposed the shifting values in America: “Its greatest qualities of freedom, liberty and opportunity have undoubtedly shaped the person I am today. But these values are slowly diminishing, and those liberties are being taken away from us little by little. I fear one day we will be unable to recognize it as the place we called home.”
A Louisiana-based reporter—who asked that his name not be used for fear of reprisal—was flagged for secondary screening at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport while traveling from Bogota, Colombia, on July 10, 2017.
The reporter told the Committee to Protect Journalists that he had been in Colombia on vacation. He made it through primary screening but was flagged for secondary screening.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers directed the reporter to empty his pockets and then searched everything in his bag and wallet. He told CPJ that the officers did not search his electronic devices, which he said would have been a red line.
The reporter said the officers came across an old note in his wallet that he had written to remind himself to file a Freedom of Information Act request for documents in connection with an incident in Louisiana. The reporter told CPJ that the CBP officers assumed the note was referring to the shooting of Louisiana representative Steve Scalise and others at a baseball practice in Virginia the month before. Though he told the officers that wasn’t the case, they took the notes out of the room and photocopied them. When they returned, the reporter said the officers questioned him about his work and the notes for approximately an hour before he was released.
The reporter told CPJ that he filed a FOIA request for his records within a few days of the incident because “I knew something wasn’t right.” He received the documents on Sept. 12, which he said showed that he had been specifically flagged for an “enforcement referral” screening.
A Russian documentary reporter was denied entry to the U.S. while trying to fly from Moscow's Shremetyevo airport to New York City on Jan. 15, 2017.
The journalist, who asked to remain anonymous, works for RTD — a documentary channel that's part of Russia's government-funded TV network RT — and has dual Russian and Canadian citizenship. As a citizen of Canada, she can visit the United States without a visa. She has visited the U.S. on multiple occasions and had never had any problems entering the country.
On Jan. 15, though, she attempted to check-in to her flight but was informed that her name had been flagged by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. She said that Russian border officials told her that, because she was flagged, they had to check with U.S. border officials before allowing her on the flight.
She said that the Russians spoke on the phone with their American counterparts for over an hour and then asked her whether she had ever been to Iraq or Syria. She answered that her work for RTD had taken her to both countries. Following more discussions with American border officials, the Russians told her that the U.S. would not allow her to enter the country.
She later asked the U.S. Embassy why she was not allowed to travel to the U.S., but the embassy referred her to to the Department of Homeland Security. A few months later, she received a letter from the Department of Homeland Security stating that the department could neither confirm nor deny that she had been stopped for any reason.
The logo of Russian television network RT is seen on a board at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2017.
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