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 2019-08-02 18:40:17.874585+00:00,2024-01-09 16:29:02.735644+00:00,"Journalist stopped at border for the fourth time, questioned about immigration reporting",https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/journalist-stopped-border-fourth-time-questioned-about-immigration-reporting/,2024-01-09 16:29:02.638477+00:00,,,,Border Stop,,,,Brooke Binkowski (Freelance),,2018-11-24,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 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.
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