During the first days of President Donald Trump’s travel ban on people from several majority-Muslim countries, as airports were besieged by chaos and protests, immigration officials were told to ignore inquiries from members of Congress, attorneys and the press, the Daily Beast reported Thursday.
According to an email obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by the Daily Beast and the James Madison Project, a Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) official told his employees that they were banned from speaking to members of Congress or the press.
Asked about this strategy, CBP told the Daily Beast that was typical procedure and that all requests from Congress must go through the agency’s Office of Congressional Affairs (OCA).
Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) told the Daily Beast that he did not receive a response from the OCA when he asked about those detained, however.
“They built a stone wall and gave us the middle finger,” he told the publication. “They feel they can do that with impunity because Trump’s in the White House and Sessions is at the Department of Justice, and they can behave outside the law or inside the law as they see fit.”
Another email from a CBP official directed employees to ignore calls from attorneys, claiming that they were likely protesters since they “appear to be reading from a script,” according to the report. The official told employees to direct requests to the agency’s Office of Public Affairs.
“This is most likely a form of telephonic protest to the EO,” the official wrote, per the Daily Beast. “Please advise all your personnel not to engage the callers nor respond to any questions.”
The emails also showed that CBP officials monitored protests at airports and which elected officials made appearances at the protests, per the Daily Beast.
Read the full report here.
Nice to have this confirmed. Congress should be making these guys’ lives hell (although they won’t).
So much for the law and whistleblower protections. Lemme see, who was in charge of that whole mess? Oh, that’s right…DHS. And who was in charge of enforcement and giving the orders at DHS during the Muslim travel ban? Oh, that’s right…ding, ding, ding…General Kelly, now tRump’s Chief of Staff.
Oy. This does not instill much confidence.
So people tasked with enforcing the law deliberately proceeded to break the law with impunity.
Lovely.
And do not forget that somehow, CPB staff magically produced and presented to incoming immigrants, documents they were told they HAD to sign. Those documents, if signed, indicated that the signer waived any right to enter the US now and forever. In numerous cases, the immigrants were denied ANY access to an attorney or even someone who spoke English.
Where these documents came from has never been determined as far as I know. How they appeared so quickly in the turmoil caused by Trump’s sudden ban is yet another mystery, but clearly at least some Customs personnel were more than ready and eager to take the law into their own hands.
Are we sure Arpaio didn’t get a role in the Misadministration while we weren’t looking?