Islamophobic travel ban or not, it seems clear that this administration is directing the CBP to target Muslims entering this country, if for no other reason that to discourage Muslims from entering this country. This is still happening.
Federal authorities have detained an Iranian woman in an Oregon jail even though she has a tourist visa to visit her family in the US, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
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Ghandi, 29, was detained for several hours after she landed in Portland on Tuesday and was eventually transferred to a county jail 80 miles away, according to Mat dos Santos, legal director of the ACLU of Oregon.
She was not accused of a crime, there was no evidence of a crime, there are no pending charges...yet she was detained upon entry and transferred to a PRISON CELL where she spent the night.
“Imagine arriving in a foreign country, being held for hours at an airport for reasons you don’t understand, then being transported to a jail an hour and a half away and denied the ability to talk to your local family.”
Exactly. I’m sure she was already on edge flying here, the looks she likely got, the extra prodding and probing. Then she gets detained, then taken to a police vehicle and driven off. She has had no contact with anyone, no idea what is going on or where she is going. Think about that for a minute. Imagine it’s the other way around, that one of you just flew into Iran to visit family, and you get handcuffed and dropped off at a prison 80 miles from the airport. You’re thinking, I’m not going home.
This is terrorism, masquerading as anti-terrorism. She posed no threat, and they know she didn’t, but because she’s a Muslim from Iran she gets treated like a terror suspect and I’m sure the world knows what we do to terror suspects.
Still no oversight. Nobody answers for this. The ACLU is involved, and that’s great, but it doesn’t seem likely that they will get any answers.
[Bryan Brandenburg, administrator at the Northern Oregon regional correctional facility] claimed that the jail does not hold people simply based on their immigration status and that Ghandi was at the facility due to a “federal warrant”, though he said he could not provide further details.
Dos Santos, however, said the ACLU has received no indication that there are any criminal charges or investigation. The CBP spokesperson also said Ghandi was not facing a criminal charge and described her case as a “minor administrative violation”.
A minor administrative violation. I don’t know what that means, but I’m guessing that if a white boy from Iowa flew to Portland and was found to have a “minor administrative violation” he wouldn’t be held in a county prison cell overnight. Just a hunch, though.