Customs and Border Protection denied reports of Iranian Americans being detained and refused entry to the United States over the weekend after a series of social media posts claimed that Iranian Americans had been held for extended periods of time at a port of entry in Blaine, Washington, at the Canadian border.
In one post that was shared more than 24,000 times, activists claimed that CBP had been “ordered” to detain “all Iranians entering the country deemed potentially suspicious.”
“Social media posts that CBP is detaining Iranian-Americans and refusing their entry into the U.S. because of their country of origin are false. Reports that DHS/CBP has issued a related directive are also false,” CBP press secretary Matt Leas said in a statement Sunday.
