seawolf

I was referring to their press releases as was Boggie Dog. Other stations' press releases identify without name.

GUWonder

CBP is not consistent in making propaganda releases like this for each and every border crosser it stops for warrants at IAD.

PTravel

I agree with GUwonder about this. It's fine that CBP picked up a couple of arrivals with outstanding warrants (and what kind of warrants? bench warrants? BOLO? and for what? missing a hearing? leaving the country in violation of a bail provision?). The press release is something else.

The press release, at the very least, raises some questions. First, this comes at a time when the president is pushing a "no entry by Muslims" and "crackdown on illegal/undesirable immigrants" agenda. CBP is under the executive branch and, historically (and not just under the Trump administration) is one of the federal agencies that is the least respecting of Constitutional rights. I would have raised an eyebrow if the press release was issued under the Obama administration. However, I find the timing of this enough to raise questions.

Second, I think it odd that the release references two unrelated individuals, from two different countries, with warrants for two unrelated incidents and both happen to have Muslim names. DHS, of which CBP is a part, grandstands all the time; that isn't in dispute. What message is CBP trying to communicate with this press release? What does CBP want the public to take away from it?

It's sad that it has come to this, but I simply don't trust CBP (and DHS as a whole) to believe that it's just coincidence that a press release was issued that included names, that the names were both "Muslim-sounding," and that the warrants, the accused and the incidents had no other relationship to each other.

Picking up people with outstanding warrants upon arrival is fine. Publicizing selectively for the purpose of agit-prop agenda-pushing is not.

N1120A

1) I think CBP is often a racist organization and targets those of Middle Eastern and Latin American descent.

2) I've seen CBP pick up people with warrants off international flights before, and those were not persons of said descent.

3) While I'm not one to give CBP/DHS generally an benefit of any doubt, I do think that it is a bit jumpy to assume that this was because the people flying were of a certain descent.

Boggie Dog

Some people see racism in every shadow. I don't think it is that simple.

GUWonder

Not true, for "I don't think it is that simple." Even if it were true in some fantasy land that some fictional people see racism in every shadow, that fictional narrative doesn't rule out the fact that DHS/CBP has a history of engaging in racism, and advocating for the use of racism -- namely, racist profiling but not only that.

N1120A

For good reason. Racism is horrifically pervasive, especially in the case of CBP/DHS. That said, I think these warrant issues flag through APIS and are hard to miss.

catocony

It's not the warrant and arrest, its the press release.

GUWonder

Indeed, this CBP release was built upon cherry-picking unrelated border crossers at a port of entry in such a way as to exclude the various others stopped at IAD at around the same time for warrants of various sorts.

N1120A

No doubt. It isn't like the guy I saw who got picked up off my YXU-ORD flight a few years ago got a press release.