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Journalists And Lawyers Are Pulled Over For Questioning By Border Agents At the
San Diego-Tijuana border, journalists covering the asylum-seekers are being
pulled into questioning by customs and border agents. Lawyers and volunteers are
facing the same scrutiny.


NATIONAL


JOURNALISTS, LAWYERS, VOLUNTEERS FACE INCREASED SCRUTINY BY BORDER AGENTS

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February 15, 20192:44 PM ET

By 

Max Rivlin-Nadler

Enlarge this image

A young man and a little girl look at the border fence from Playas de Tijuana,
Mexico. Photojournalist Ariana Drehsler has been covering the caravan of
migrants for weeks. In December, Customs and Border Protection agents began
pulling her over for questioning each time she crossed back into the U.S. Ariana
Drehsler for NPR hide caption

toggle caption
Ariana Drehsler for NPR


A young man and a little girl look at the border fence from Playas de Tijuana,
Mexico. Photojournalist Ariana Drehsler has been covering the caravan of
migrants for weeks. In December, Customs and Border Protection agents began
pulling her over for questioning each time she crossed back into the U.S.

Ariana Drehsler for NPR

For months, photojournalist Ariana Drehsler had been crossing the border between
her home in San Diego and the Mexican city of Tijuana without incident. Drehsler
was photographing asylum-seekers who had traveled to Tijuana, and she had never
once been questioned by border officials for longer than a minute while
re-entering the United States.

But beginning in December, every time she crossed back into the U.S. she was
pulled into secondary for questioning. Agents asked her about events taking
place in Tijuana and the people working with asylum-seekers. Two agents told
Drehsler that they wanted her to answer questions for them because she was "on
the ground," while they weren't.


THE PICTURE SHOW


'I'M A SURVIVOR OF VIOLENCE': PORTRAITS OF WOMEN WAITING IN MEXICO FOR U.S.
ASYLUM

"They wanted to know who I was working for and what I was seeing," Drehsler told
NPR. "They focused on the shelters, and people crossing illegally."

During one of the stops, Drehsler was separated from her camera. She doesn't
know if CBP went through it, but she was made uncomfortable by the position the
agents were putting her in.

"That's not part of my job, to keep getting stopped by these guys and doing
their homework for them," she said.

Enlarge this image

Drehsler's photo of a dozen migrants who decided to jump the border fence that
divides the United States and Mexico in December. Drehsler and other journalists
are facing increased scrutiny when they cross the border. Ariana Drehsler for
NPR hide caption

toggle caption
Ariana Drehsler for NPR


Drehsler's photo of a dozen migrants who decided to jump the border fence that
divides the United States and Mexico in December. Drehsler and other journalists
are facing increased scrutiny when they cross the border.

Ariana Drehsler for NPR

Drehsler is just one of dozens of journalists, volunteers and lawyers who have
been interrogated by CBP at the San Diego border over the past several weeks,
part of a trend that civil rights groups have deemed "alarming." Other
journalists stopped at the border have said that agents have shown them photo
lineups of individuals, asking them to help identify activists and other
organizers the agents described as "instigating" asylum-seekers.



That's not part of my job, to keep getting stopped by these guys and doing their
homework for them.

Ariana Drehsler, photojournalist

Last November, the Committee to Protect Journalists published an urgent report
about increasing incidents of CBP agents searching journalists' electronic
devices and questioning them about their reporting and their sources. The
committee has been in touch with several of the journalists who have been
stopped and interrogated by CBP.

"The ability for journalists to protect their sources, the ability for them to
protect information they gather in the course of their reporting, the ability
for them to be seen as independent of law enforcement and not just another
intelligence arm of the government, is so central to what journalism is," said
Alexandra Ellerbeck, the organization's North America program coordinator.


NATIONAL


A WAITING GAME FOR IMMIGRANTS AND BORDER AGENTS ON 2 SIDES OF THE WALL

Kitra Cahana, an American-Canadian photojournalist who has been covering the
migration of refugees from Central America, has repeatedly been denied entrance
to Mexico in recent weeks. Cahana had crossed back and forth across the border
without incident before she was turned back after flying to Mexico City from
Detroit on Jan. 17.

"For me, this is a question of freedom of the press and our ability as the press
to cover important stories like the migrant caravan," Cahana said. "And I, along
with other journalists, are effectively no longer able to cover the story of the
migrant caravan."



Concern about sensitive legal documents

In addition to journalists, volunteers working with asylum-seekers and lawyers
who advise asylum-seekers on their rights are also becoming increasingly wary of
CBP searches.

One attorney working with asylum-seekers in Tijuana told NPR that last month,
agents went through sensitive legal documents she was carrying. She asked to
remain anonymous as her organization continues to work in Tijuana. "[The agent]
asked me if I was interviewing people, and then he asked me what I did for a
living. I said I was a lawyer, and he then began reading through my papers," she
said.

Immigration lawyers are now particularly concerned about their clients' privacy,
after the recent implementation of the Migrant Protection Protocols, a policy
that aims to keep asylum-seekers in Mexico as their claim is processed. To meet
with clients, American lawyers now have to travel to Tijuana, crossing the
border and possibly exposing sensitive documents to CBP agents.

"Attorney-client privilege is huge and if they have the right to go through our
laptops, through our phones, if I take a case file with me, and they want to
make a copy of everything, that's definitely breaking attorney-client
privilege," said Maria Chavez, an immigration lawyer based in San Diego.

The Department of Homeland Security has said that lawyers will still be able to
meet with their clients but has not detailed how or when. The first hearings for
asylum-seekers returned to Mexico under MPP have not yet happened.

Lawyers barred from entering Mexico

At the same time that screenings of journalists and lawyers have ramped up,
several lawyers have been barred from entering the country by Mexican
authorities because of new alerts placed on their passports. Mexican officials
have told the lawyers the alerts come from U.S. authorities.

Two lawyers from the Tijuana-based organization Al Otro Lado, which plays a
central role in helping asylum-seekers navigate the U.S. immigration system,
have been denied entry into Mexico in recent weeks.



Nicole Ramos, a U.S. citizen and lawyer with Al Otro Lado, had her expedited
border crossing card confiscated by U.S. authorities last month and has since
stayed in Mexico. "It's the epitome of dramatic irony that the U.S. government
is telling asylum-seekers that U.S. attorneys are going to come and handle their
cases, but when you have some of the principal attorneys who handle refugees'
issues on the border attempting to access Mexico, there are alerts placed on our
passports which are causing Mexican officials to deny us entry or deport us,"
Ramos told NPR.

The ACLU and other organizations, including Al Otro Lado, filed a lawsuit
against the Department of Homeland Security on Thursday, aiming to stop the
rollout of MPP.

Several members of Congress have begun to investigate CBP's questioning
practices. Sen. Ron Wyden's office says the senator has reached out to CBP with
questions about its scrutiny of reporters and activists at the border.

CBP declined repeated requests for comment about specific cases where
journalists and lawyers have been barred from entering Mexico.

 * asylum seekers
 * border
 * Tijuana
 * San Diego

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