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SOURCE: LEAKED DOCUMENTS SHOW THE U.S. GOVERNMENT TRACKING JOURNALISTS AND
IMMIGRATION ADVOCATES THROUGH A SECRET DATABASE


THE DOCUMENTS DETAIL AN INTELLIGENCE-GATHERING EFFORT BY THE UNITED STATES AND
MEXICAN AUTHORITIES, TARGETING MORE THAN 50 PEOPLE INCLUDING JOURNALISTS, AN
ATTORNEY, AND IMMIGRATION ADVOCATES

BY TOM JONES, MARI PAYTON AND BILL FEATHER PUBLISHED MARCH 6, 2019 • UPDATED ON
JANUARY 10, 2020 AT 11:43 AM



BY TOM JONES, MARI PAYTON AND BILL FEATHER PUBLISHED MARCH 6, 2019 • UPDATED ON
JANUARY 10, 2020 AT 11:43 AM



This story has been updated with a new statement from Customs and Border
Protection and a response from the ACLU.

Documents obtained by NBC 7 Investigates show the U.S. government created a
secret database of activists, journalists, and social media influencers tied to
the migrant caravan and in some cases, placed alerts on their passports.

At the end of 2018, roughly 5,000 immigrants from Central America made their way
north through Mexico to the United States southern border. The story made
international headlines. 

As the migrant caravan reached the San Ysidro Port of Entry in south San Diego
County, so did journalists, attorneys, and advocates who were there to work and
witness the events unfolding. 



But in the months that followed, journalists who covered the caravan, as well as
those who offered assistance to caravan members, said they felt they had become
targets of intense inspections and scrutiny by border officials. 

One photojournalist said she was pulled into secondary inspections three times
and asked questions about who she saw and photographed in Tijuana shelters.
Another photojournalist said she spent 13 hours detained by Mexican authorities
when she tried to cross the border into Mexico City. Eventually, she was denied
entry into Mexico and sent back to the U.S. 

These American photojournalists and attorneys said they suspected the U.S.
government was monitoring them closely but until now, they couldn’t prove it. 

Now, documents leaked to NBC 7 Investigates show their fears weren’t baseless.
In fact, their own government had listed their names in a secret database of
targets, where agents collected information on them. Some had alerts placed on
their passports, keeping at least two photojournalists and an attorney from
entering Mexico to work. 

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The U.S. government created a secret database of activists, journalists, and
social media influencers tied to the migrant caravan. NBC 7's Mari Payton has
more.

The documents were provided to NBC 7 by a Homeland Security source on the
condition of anonymity, given the sensitive nature of what they were divulging. 

The source said the documents or screenshots show a SharePoint application that
was used by agents from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE), the U.S. Border Patrol, Homeland Security
Investigations and some agents from the San Diego sector of the Federal Bureau
of Investigations (FBI).

The intelligence-gathering efforts were done under the umbrella of “Operation
Secure Line,” the operation designated to monitor the migrant caravan, according
to the source. 

The documents list people who officials think should be targeted for screening
at the border. 

The individuals listed include ten journalists, seven of whom are U.S. citizens,
a U.S. attorney, and 48 people from the U.S. and other countries, labeled as
organizers, instigators or their roles “unknown.” The target list includes
advocates from organizations like Border Angels and Pueblo Sin Fronteras. 

To view the documents, click here or the link below.


PHOTOS: LEAKED DOCUMENTS SHOW GOVERNMENT TRACKING JOURNALISTS, IMMIGRATION
ADVOCATES



NBC 7 Investigates is blurring the names and photos of individuals who haven’t
given us permission to publish their information. 

The documents are titled “San Diego Sector Foreign Operations Branch: Migrant
Caravan FY-2019, Suspected Organizers, Coordinators, Instigators and Media” and
are dated January 9, 2019. 

Emblazoned on it are the American and Mexican flags, with a banner that reads:
"ILU-OASSIS-OMEGA." An official at the Department of Homeland Security said the
seal indicates that the documents are a product of the International Liaison
Unit (ILU), which coordinates intelligence between Mexico and the United
States. 


This seal is emblazoned in the leaked documents to NBC 7 Investigates.

For each person, the documents show their photo, often from their passport but
in some cases from their social media accounts, along with their personal
information. That information includes the person’s date of birth, their
“country of commencement,” and their alleged role tied to the migrant caravan.
The information also includes whether officials placed an alert on the person’s
passport. 

Some individuals have a colored “X” over their photo, indicating whether they
were arrested, interviewed, or had their visa or SENTRI pass revoked by
officials. 

In addition to flagging the individuals for secondary screenings, the Homeland
Security source told NBC 7 that the agents also created dossiers on each person
listed. 

“We are a criminal investigation agency, we’re not an intelligence agency,” the
Homeland Security source told NBC 7 Investigates. “We can’t create dossiers on
people and they’re creating dossiers. This is an abuse of the Border Search
Authority.” 

One dossier, shared with NBC 7, was on Nicole Ramos, the Refugee Director and
attorney for Al Otro Lado, a law center for migrants and refugees in Tijuana,
Mexico. The dossier included personal details on Ramos, including specific
details about the car she drives, her mother’s name, and her work and travel
history. 

After sharing the documents with Ramos, she said Al Otro Lado is seeking more
information on why she and other attorneys at the law center have been targeted
by border officials. 

“The document appears to prove what we have assumed for some time, which is that
we are on a law enforcement list designed to retaliate against human rights
defenders who work with asylum seekers and who are critical of CBP practices
that violate the rights of asylum seekers,” Ramos told NBC 7 by email. 

In addition to the dossier on Ramos, a list of other dossier files created was
shared with NBC 7. Two of the dossier files were labeled with the names of
journalists but no further details were available. Those journalists were also
listed as targets for secondary screenings. 

Customs and Border Protection has the authority to pull anyone into secondary
screenings, but the documents show the agency is increasingly targeting
journalists, attorneys, and immigration advocates. Former counterterrorism
officials say the agency should not be targeting individuals based on their
profession. 

NBC 7 Investigates sent the information to all border and law enforcement
agencies the source listed, asking whether the information was valid and if
these tactics were legal. 

A Customs and Border Protection spokesperson did not answer NBC 7’s list of
questions or confirm the validity of the documents shared. 

By email, the spokesperson said, “Criminal events, such as the breach of the
border wall in San Diego, involving assaults on law enforcement and a risk to
public safety, are routinely monitored and investigated by authorities.” 

To read CBP’s full statement, click here.

“It is protocol following these incidents to collect evidence that might be
needed for future legal actions and to determine if the event was orchestrated,”
the statement read. “CBP and our law enforcement partners evaluate these
incidents, follow all leads garnered from information collected, conduct
interviews and investigations, in preparation for, and often to prevent future
incidents that could cause further harm to the public, our agents, and our
economy.” 

UPDATE - 4:20 p.m.
Minutes after our story published and five days after a Customs and Border
Protection spokesperson gave us the agency's statement above, CBP told our
colleagues at NBC News that the names in the database are all people who were
present during violence that broke out at the border in November. The agency
also said journalists are being tracked so that the agency can learn more about
what started that violence. CBP never clarified that point directly to NBC 7
Investigates.

UPDATE - 8:20 p.m.

Staff attorney Esha Bhandari with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology
Project, called the government's targeting of journalists and migrants
"outrageous."

“This is an outrageous violation of the First Amendment. The government cannot
use the pretext of the border to target activists critical of its policies,
lawyers providing legal representation, or journalists simply doing their jobs.
We are exploring all options in response,” Bhandari said.

Senior staff attorney Mitra Ebadolahi with the ACLU of San Diego’s Border
Litigation Project called NBC 7's report the latest example of abuse of power by
the CBP.

“For years, the U.S. government has used the pretext of ‘border security' to
trample on Americans’ constitutional rights. This most recent example is just
the latest in a steady stream of CBP abuse of authority, and once again
underscores the dire need for meaningful agency oversight and accountability,"
Ebadolahi said.


JOURNALISTS TARGETED FOR BORDER INSPECTIONS

NBC 7 Investigates spoke with seven of the journalists listed on the database as
targets for secondary screenings, including freelance photojournalist Ariana
Drehsler. 

“I'm interested in covering social and political issues,” Drehsler said, adding
that she covered the migrant caravan in Tijuana for Buzzfeed News and United
Press International. 

“I think there's a lot of misconceptions, maybe from both sides, about who are
these people that are trying to seek asylum,” Drehsler said. “So I think as a
photojournalist, it is my responsibility to cover that to the best of my
abilities.” 

Drehsler estimated she had crossed the border from San Ysidro dozens of times
covering the caravan. 


UPI
Las Playas de Tijuana on December 9, 2018. At night the beach is lit up with
lights from the U.S. side to help US Customs and Border Patrol find people
trying to cross illegally. Photo by Ariana Drehsler/UPI

“I was very transparent about what I was doing,” Drehsler said. “Sometimes you
would see me carrying a camera and if I was asked by an agent what was I doing,
I would tell them I was photographing the [migrant] shelters.” 

But on December 30, 2018, when Drehsler was crossing back into the United
States, she was pulled into secondary inspection and questioned by border
agents. 

“Two people in plainclothes came down and took me to another room,” Drehsler
said. “They questioned me in a small room, asking me questions about the
shelter, what was I seeing there, who was I working for.” 

“They said that I was on the ground and they’re not, which I thought was really
interesting.” 

After about an hour, Drehsler said she was allowed to leave but agents warned
her that an alert had been placed on her passport and that she would be pulled
into a secondary screening again if she crossed the border. The agents told her
to plan accordingly, given the screenings could last an hour or more. When she
asked why this alert was placed on her passport, agents told her they had no
idea. 

Drehsler said she was pulled into secondary screenings two more times while
crossing the border. Each time she said she was questioned by the same agents in
plainclothes. The second time was on Jan. 2, 2019, and the third time was on
Jan. 4, 2019. 

On the third occasion, Drehsler said she was told to leave her gear, including
her camera and cell phone, on a table outside of the interview room. When she
returned, she said it didn’t appear to her that the gear had been looked
through. Agents asked Drehsler if she could show them the photos she had taken
but she said she declined. 

Some of the questions agents asked Drehsler on the third screening struck her as
odd. 

“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.” 

Drehsler told NBC 7 the personal details listed for her in the leaked
screenshots are accurate. She confirmed the photo officials used came from her
passport. The screenshots include a green “X” over Drehsler’s photograph,
indicating she had been interviewed by agents. 

Sharing the documents with Drehsler, she told NBC 7 she was “blown away.” 

“I have so many questions; I have more questions than answers,” she said.
“Personally, I don't understand what [agents] are hoping to find.” 

Other journalists and attorneys have previously told news outlets like NPR and
The Intercept that they too faced the same kind of increased scrutiny
surrounding their work involving the migrant caravan. 

Evidence of increased scrutiny of journalists at the border was detailed in an
October 2018 report prepared by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ.) 

The report identified 37 journalists who said they found the secondary
screenings by border officials “invasive,” and said 20 cases involved border
agents “conducting warrantless searches of [the journalists’] electronic
devices.” 

The journalists featured in the leaked documents said they were separated from
their electronic devices and gear but had no evidence that agents had gone
through their items. 

Kitra Cahana is another freelance photojournalist and U.S. citizen listed as a
target in the documents. By phone from Honduras, Cahana told NBC 7 she also
faced increased scrutiny and was eventually denied entry into Mexico for no
apparent reason. 


Kitra Cahana
Kitra Cahana is an award-winning freelance documentary photographer,
videographer, a photo/video artist.

Cahana's work has been featured in National Geographic magazine, The New York
Times and the CBC out of Canada. One night in late December, she said Mexican
authorities photographed her passport while she and other journalists were
working near the border. 

Then, on Jan. 17, 2019, while traveling from Canada to Mexico City, Cahana said
she had a connecting flight in Detroit, Michigan. Cahana said in Montreal, her
passport was flagged while going through U.S. Customs pre-clearance. Cahana said
she was pulled into a secondary screening where border agents asked her a list
of questions about her work. 

“They were interested in whether I had an assignment when I was going down to
cover the caravan,” Cahana said. “And they wanted to know how I was funding my
work.” 

Cahana said she was asked to explain how freelance photojournalism works, which
she found strange. Afterward, her passport was flagged again in Detroit but
eventually, she was allowed to board her flight and fly to Mexico City. 

But when she arrived in Mexico, her passport was flagged again. Cahana said she
brought this to a Mexican official and was taken into a back room with another
group of detained individuals. 

There, Cahana said her phone was taken away and she couldn’t leave the room.
When she needed to use the restroom, an agent escorted her. 

“I wasn't allowed to be in communication with anyone, I wasn’t allowed to
contact my embassy,” Cahana said. “It was very confusing because my Spanish is
quite limited and no one there really spoke English.” 

Cahana said the whole ordeal lasted 13 hours and in the end, she was denied
entry into Mexico. She had to wait until a plane arrived that could take her
back to Detroit, where her flight originated. 

Since then, Cahana said she tried one more time to cross the border into
Mexico. 

“I was trying to cross into Mexico through Guatemala to continue my work
covering the caravan and then I was denied again,” Cahana said. 

NBC 7 Investigates confirmed another journalist was denied entry into Mexico
after covering the caravan in January. That journalist is also listed in the
SharePoint files leaked to NBC 7. 

In the documents shared with NBC 7, Cahana confirmed her personal details were
accurate and that the photo used is from her passport. Cahana said she’s been in
contact with the Committee to Protect Journalists and the ACLU as far as the
alert placed on her passport, preventing her access to Mexico. 

Cahana said the increased scrutiny by border officials could have a chilling
effect on freelance journalists covering the border. 

“In the current state of journalism, it's really freelancers who are bringing so
much news to the public,” Cahana said. “And the uncertainty of having an alert
placed on your passport and not knowing where and when that's going to prevent
you from doing your work is really problematic.” 

Correction: A previous version of this story stated three photojournalists were
denied entry into Mexico. After speaking with those involved, it was clarified
that only two photojournalists were denied entry into Mexico. The article above
has been updated to reflect this.

Want to know if you're on the target list? Have you faced increased scrutiny
while covering a story at the border? NBC 7 Investigates wants to hear from you.
Contact us at cbptargetlist@nbcuni.com.


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