US Border Patrol is Interrogating Journalists, Compiling Dossiers
Whistleblower: “This is abuse of the Border Search Authority.”
On Sunday August 25, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation journalist Carolyn Dunn announced on Twitter that she had been barred entry to the US, even after showing proof that she had a one-week temporary assignment in the US.
Canadian Broadcasting is more commonly known as CBC/Radio-Canada, and like America’s PBC, is a Canadian federal Crown corporation that serves as a national public broadcaster for both radio and television.
The border patrol agents quoted legal text that said Dunn would be gaining entry into the US “labor market” and that she would be considered “imported labor” — even though Dunn carried proof of her assignment with CBC, who is her employer and would be paying her wages.
On the Twitter thread, Alexander Panetta, a Politico Pro editor covering Washington DC and US/Canadian issues, responded by saying, “Yikes. If everyone began interpreting the rules that way it would mean no foreign agencies could ever send reporters for a major breaking event. Like, say, an election or shock event like a 9/11. [It] would be a game-changer for global coverage of US stories, if this were new policy.”
On Wednesday, August 23, Newsweek reported that British journalist James Dyer, who works for Empire Magazine, had been confronted by a border agent at Los Angeles International Airport.
“He wanted to know if I’d ever worked for CNN or MSNBC or other outlets that are ‘spreading lies to the American people,’” Dyer said. “He aggressively told me that journalists are liars and are attacking their democracy.”
Where was James Dyer going, and what was his nefarious purpose? He was there to cover the latest Star Wars movie.
In March 2019, an anonymous Homeland Security employee provided KNSD San Diego proof that the US was tracking journalists crossing the US/Mexico border. The US border program, compiled in Microsoft Sharepoint, is called Operation Secure Line, and in this instance specifically targeted foreign and domestic journalists covering Central American migrant caravans.
Documents and photos show that journalists were catalogued as “instigators”, “organizers” or “unknown”, even though most if not all have valid journalism credentials and a documented work history. Some had alerts placed on their passports, keeping at least three photojournalists and an attorney from entering Mexico to work, according to KNSD San Diego.
Most alarming, the anonymous whistleblower said: “We can’t create dossiers on people and they’re creating dossiers. This is an abuse of the Border Search Authority.”
Photojournalist Ariana Drehsler had been stopped three times as of the NBC7 news story, and interviewed for an hour each time — each time by the same two agents.
On the third screening, some of the questions the agents asked her struck her as odd. According to NBC7, she said: “They asked about the new caravan and if word had gotten out about how difficult it is to seek asylum in the U.S.,” Drehsler said. “Then before I left, the female agent asked if I rented or owned my home.”
