Incident details
- Updated on
- Date of incident
- January 2, 2019
- Location
- San Diego, California
- Targets
- Ariana Drehsler (Freelance)
- Case number
- 1:19-cv-06570
- Case status
- Settled
- Type of case
- Civil
- Border point
- San Ysidro Port of Entry
- Target nationality
- US citizenship status of target
- U.S. citizen
- Denied entry?
- No
- Stopped previously?
- No
- Asked for device access?
- No
- Asked intrusive questions about work?
- Yes
Border Stop
In early December 2018, El Barretal shelter in Tijuana, Mexico, housed more than 3,000 migrants from Central America.
Journalists settle suit against DHS over border stops
A group of journalists who sued the government over border officers’ questioning of journalists about their work settled the suit on Jan. 26, 2026, in New York, New York, federal court, according to court documents reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
Journalists Ariana Drehsler, Mark Abramson, Kitra Cahana, Bing Guan and Go Nakamura sued in November 2019 after a series of border stops in late 2018 and early 2019, during which all five were asked intrusive questions about their coverage of a Central American migrant caravan’s arrival in Mexico. Three had equipment searched by border officers.
The suit accused the government of violating the First Amendment and named the heads of the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement as defendants. The complaint notes that pictures of all five journalists appear in a DHS compilation of journalists, activists and attorneys connected to the migrant caravan.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which represented the plaintiffs along with law firm Covington & Burling, announced that the settlement required CBP to “issue guidance to certain CBP units regarding the First Amendment and Privacy Act protections that apply when questioning journalists at the border,” and to act “to ensure that the journalists’ past reporting at the U.S.-Mexico border should not serve as a basis for future border questioning.”
The settlement also includes “an amount for costs and attorneys’ fees.” ACLU attorney Esha Bhandari declined to provide additional information about the settlement terms.
“We are thankful to have secured redress for these journalists, to allow them to do their jobs reporting on the news free from unjustified government scrutiny,” Bhandari said.
Guan said: “It’s clear the government’s actions were meant to instill fear in journalists like me, to cow us into standing down from reporting what is happening on the ground. After being targeted for doing just that, I am grateful for what our lawsuit has achieved in defending the rights of journalists to report free from government officials’ scrutiny.”
Cahana said: “My biggest fear is that other journalists may have avoided important stories out of fear of being targeted themselves. Press freedom is not a partisan issue. Everyone should be alarmed when journalists are targeted.”
Photojournalist sues DHS, agencies after questioned about caravan coverage
Freelance photojournalist Ariana Drehsler and four other photojournalists filed a lawsuit against the heads of the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Nov. 20, 2019.
The plaintiffs were each questioned by CBP officers from November 2018 to January 2019 about their work covering the Central American migrant caravan’s arrival to Mexico. In March 2019, it was revealed that DHS officials in San Diego had created a database of journalists, activists and attorneys who were involved in some way with the migrant caravan. Drehsler and two of the other plaintiffs were listed in the database.
“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 as of January 2022 and discovery is underway.
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.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker catalogs press freedom violations in the United States. Email tips to [email protected].
