The longtime mayor of Prospect Park, New Jersey, said he was detained and interrogated at JFK International Airport for three hours last month due to his Muslim background, according to NorthJersey.com.
Mohamed Khairullah also claimed he was questioned by Customs and Border Protection agents about his overseas travels and if he had met with any “terrorist cells.”
“It’s flat-out insulting,” Khairullah said. “It’s flat-out stereotyping of Muslims and Arabs. It was definitely a hurtful moment where I’m thinking in my mind that this is not the America that I know. I am very familiar with our laws and Constitution, and everything that was going on there was a violation.”
A CBP spokesperson told The Hill that some passengers could have their electronic devices temporarily seized but would not talk about the incident involving Khairullah.
“While we are not at liberty to discuss an individual’s processing due to the Privacy Act, our CBP officers are charged with enforcing not only immigration and customs laws, but they also enforce over 400 laws for 40 other agencies and have stopped thousands of violators of U.S. law,” a spokesperson said.
“For a minuscule number of travelers, this inspection may include electronic devices such as computers, disks, drives, tapes, mobile phones and other communication devices, cameras, music and other media players and any other electronic or digital devices. CBP’s keeping Americans safe by enforcing our nation’s laws in an increasingly digital world depends on our ability to lawfully inspect all materials—electronic or otherwise—entering the United States,” the spokesperson added.
NorthJersey.com reported that CPB agents informed Khairullah that his detention was randomly issued and comprised questions about his past including his college degree and his mother’s name.
His phone was confiscated by officials, but it was given back to him after an attorney with the advocacy group Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) negotiated for its return.
Ahmed Mohamed, CAIR’s litigation director, criticized CBP in a statement, saying the agency disregarded the necessity for “reasonable suspicion” to perform searches.
“CBP believes they can do what they want at the border, but even their own policies say there needs to be reasonable suspicion to do an intrusive search of the phone,” he said.
