Zahr Said didn’t think much about her inability to check in online for her flight home to Seattle after an October business trip in Beijing. She also didn’t worry too much about being twice singled out for additional screening before boarding her flight and again at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection checkpoint at Seattle International Airport. The University of Washington law professor assumed the heightened security measures might have been linked to an annual weeklong Communist conference in China. But when she had similar difficulties checking in for an October 26 flight to Irvine, California, Said realized it was more than just an anomaly. She was puzzled that, despite having Global Entry clearance, which allowed her expedited entry through airport security and customs, she had become a target for airport questioning and invasive pat-downs.
Three days later, Said got an email from CBP notifying her that her Global Entry clearance had been revoked. Said spoke to the enrollment office at the Seattle airport, which told her that the revocation came from a higher office responsible for vetting procedures, she said.
“I live in Seattle. I have children. I have two stepchildren. I have a husband. I teach yoga.” Said, 41, told The Intercept. “It all makes me who I am — and I feel all of those things evaporate in a second when TSA or CBP seem to make it about me having a Yemeni father or being born in Lebanon.”
But Said is not alone. She is one of hundreds of travelers with a Muslim, Arab, or South Asian background whose Global Entry clearances were revoked, in what lawyers and civil rights activists say is a de facto extension of the Trump administration’s Muslim travel ban.
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in August and October obtained emails and documents through the Freedom of Information Act confirming that CBP revoked Global Entry memberships for hundreds of travelers from Arab and Muslim-majority countries – many of them U.S. citizens — earlier this year. And ADC’s own records show that the number of revocations exceeds what CBP has acknowledged.
Global Entry is one of four CBP Trusted Traveler Programs that allow vetted U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, and nationals from nine countries expedited entry through airport security and customs. In order to obtain Global Entry clearance, applicants must provide biometric records and undergo interviews and background checks. Days after President Donald Trump signed a hotly contested executive order restricting immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries, about 30 Muslim and Arab travelers in the United States reported to ADC that CBP revoked their Global Entry clearances, according to immigration attorneys Andrew Free and Greg Siskind, who filed a lawsuit on ADC’s behalf.
“What has happened, in practice, is that people who were once able — by the virtue of Global Entry — to escape the constant racial and ethnic profiling they faced when traveling have now been suddenly, and without explanation, denied that privilege,” Free told The Intercept. “The only thing they all have in common is that nothing has changed in their own personal situations, and, of course, the reality of their own identities.”
In March, ADC filed a FOIA request with CBP for emails that contained the terms “Muslim,” “Arab,” “Muslim ban,” “ban,” and “travel ban.” CBP did not timely respond to the request, so ADC filed a lawsuit in April. On October 6, nearly six months later, CBP released records to the ADC. The response, Free said, is incomplete and misleading. For example, CBP only turned over emails from a single CBP manager’s email account, and they did not contain any of the keywords included in ADC’s request. CBP also has not conducted requested email searches that would reveal whether the agency issued any internal policies or memoranda on or after November 9, 2016, relating to the suspension, revocation, or cancellation of Global Entry memberships.
Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
CBP revoked 429 Global Entry memberships on January 31 and February 1 for citizens of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Syria, and Yemen – the countries included in the first iteration of Trump’s travel ban – according to CBP documents released to ADC. But the numbers don’t add up, said Free, noting that 10 of ADC’s 30 clients were not included in CBP’s list, which identified travelers using their Global Entry traveler numbers. The Department of Homeland Security, CBP’s parent agency, also provided conflicting information to nine senators who sent a letter to then-DHS Secretary John Kelly inquiring about Global Entry revocations for Muslim travelers. DHS sent a memo to New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker, one of the letter’s signatories, claiming that 419 memberships were revoked following Trump’s January 27 order. The memo, which was released to The Intercept, also says all the memberships were reinstated February 2. Only one of ADC’s clients, however, have had their Global Entry reinstated, Siskind said.
The agency’s story does not add up, said Free, adding that the bigger problem is “what is not captured by these figures. Namely, there are dozens of individuals who’ve had their Global Entry revoked who are ostensibly excluded from CBP data.”
“We have enough to believe and enough to show that [CBP is] engaging in discrimination against Arabs, Muslims, and people with Muslim-sounding names.” – Abed Ayoub, ADC
DHS denies allegations of ethnic and religious bias. “Any assertion that DHS revoked Global Entry membership[s] on the basis of member’s ethnicity or religion, or because of an Arab or Muslim-sounding last name, is unequivocally untrue and insulting,” Michael Dougherty, DHS assistant secretary for border, immigration, and trade policy, wrote to Booker. CBP spokesperson Jennifer Garbis told The Intercept she could not comment on specific allegations, citing pending litigation, adding that the agency stands behind its previous statement.
ADC is continuing its litigation against CBP in an attempt to obtain additional records, but the records released so far also reveal that private contractors from Northrop Grumman, an American aerospace and defense firm, wrongly revoked global entry membership for lawful permanent residents and then struggled to correctly reinstate them.
“We have just been provided guidance that US LPRs [lawful permanent residents] are not subject to the Executive order issued on 1/27/2017,” a CBP staffer wrote in a February 1 email. “In the past 2 days, we have manually revoked, denied or failed risk on hundreds in this category.”
ADC Legal Director Abed Ayoub said the information from the FOIA documents reaffirms a widespread belief that CBP is actively discriminating against certain travelers. “With the information that is coming in, we have enough to believe and enough to show that they are engaging in discrimination against Arabs, Muslims, and people with Muslim-sounding names,” Ayoub told The Intercept. CBP has not released records explicitly explaining these revocations, and because the common thread among ADC’s clients is that they are Arabs or have Muslim-sounding names, the group believes the trend is an extension of Trump’s Muslim ban.
Ayoub said his group also heard from Muslim and Arab travelers whose Global Entry clearances were randomly revoked under the Obama administration, but the primary difference under Trump is the timing and volume of the cancellations. “The Trump administration has made it clear that it will do what it can to implement a backdoor Arab and Muslim ban, and this needs to be taken into consideration when looking at the influx of revocations,” Ayoub said. “The fact that many of these revocations happened after Trump took office raises the probability that this is part of an effort that discriminately targets Arabs and Muslims.”
And it’s not just the Global Entry cancellations. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the largest Muslim civil rights organization in the country, documented a 1,035% increase in anti-Muslim incidents at the U.S. border within the first 100 days of Trump’s presidency.
According to Siskind, none of their clients have any criminal history or ties to terrorist groups, which could be causes for revocation. “If DHS will even look at one of these cases, they will see that their response to Senator Booker is nonsensical,” Siskind told The Intercept. “We know from the cases we have that this is a ridiculous argument. Doctors, law professors, accountants, Silicon Valley executives, and others who have been affected have one thing in common: their heritage.”
The issue extends beyond the cases ADC is working on – the civil rights group Muslim Advocates has also sued the DHS for information about the revocations. And Said lost her clearance nine months after the first travel ban was signed, an indication that the revocations continue despite litigation. Said will soon be a visiting professor at Stanford Law School, which means she’ll be traveling a lot, with or without Global Entry.
“I want to travel as little as possible,” Said said, noting that enhanced airport security makes her travel times unpredictable. “It’s a huge hassle.”
Top photo: A man looks out at planes at John F. Kennedy international airport following an announcement by the Supreme Court that it will take President Donald Trump’s travel ban case later in the year on June 26, 2017 in New York City.
GE is a joke.
Create private airlines and charter crowd funded flights like Uber style.
Get the useless government out of transportation and use the private sector to improve travel. It’s the government that gave us 9/11 and useless wars, instead they pass their failures onto the public. Get lost, build your own travel machines and teleporters – get the government out of travel and human mobility.
What this article fails to do is to address the entire question of the legitimacy of the entire Global Entry program, which seems to be an elitist mechanism set up so that a select few could avoid the harassment suffered by everybody else in the air transportation system. You could say it functions as a safety valve, giving upper middle class elite travellers the ability to opt out of the horrendous conditions suffered by everybody else, so as to pacify them and avoid the upper middle class servants of the oligarchy speaking out about the massive oppression that has been imposed on anybody who exercises the freedom to travel which the U.S. Supreme Court has long held is a basic human right enjoyed by all people, not just by U.S. citizens, above and beyond constitutional guarantees. Looked at that way, getting rid of any part of this elitist system could be considered a step forward. I say scrap the entire system, treat everybody EQUALLY, and then see how much pressure builds up to reduce the onerous restricts imposed on everybody—rather than arguing in favor of continuing to pamper and exclude elitists from what everyone else has to suffer through…
Good. Finally someone is relooking at the laxity of previous GE approvals. Noone from the countries (born, related to, etc) supporting terrorism should even be in the US, hopefully revoking GE is the first step
So Trump is concerned with climate change after all.
That is how the Spaniards after the Reconquista convinced them to stop believing they were Muslims, change their names and convert to Confucianism ….
It’s not racial profiling, it’s detective 101.
I beleive that the requirement for global entry, sentri and nexus be ramped up. I have seem far to many questionable people using this service. I seen folks with global entry thinking it exempts them from any customs inspection or questions, i seen nexus amd sentri member that have brough in prohibited fruit infested with fruit fly. I have heard stories of wildlife ivory smugglers using global entry to bypass inspection.
And preclearance is even worst. As you only have customs there with lite to no training from the other agencies with inspection authority at the border
Now Look – We either destroyed your country or would like to – so Now — we don’t trust you. To me – that seems like what the airport officials are saying.
This is a victory for democracy. The current US government has been elected to make policies for improved security. No more special treatment for intolerant people from those 7 countries.
Human beings were never meant to fly. The sooner that all human beings can be added to the no-fly list, the better.
This is a victory for democracy. The US government has been elected by majority and should be allowed to enforce their policies for improved security. No special treatment for intolerant people and lumpen elements from those 7 countries.
Waaaaaah
This con game of putting some Muslim front and center to cry about being detained is a scam designed to fool the liberal goon apes, and trick some jackass judge into blocking trumps travel order.
White privilege, bomb, murder decimate in other countries with wild abandon and then introduce policies targeting people who come from the very region which you have turned into a graveyard with your policies.
Then westerners sit and scratch their heads and wonder why some would chose to target their cities whilst their governments continue murdering innocent civilians with bombs and drones, almost every single attacker in the west who has left a message or been caught alive has cited western foreign policy as their calling card, even Mohammed atta ( 9/11 ringleader) cited the 500000 children murdered by US sanctions, remember Madeline Albright? She actually stated that the deaths were a price worth paying and there you have it, non white life’s are deemed worthless, it’s nothing to do with protecting their populace , afterall if that was the case there would be a discussion on gun control, this is about sowing the seeds in the minds of brain dead who are incapable of seeing the bigger picture as can be seen by some posts on here.
Blame all those dark skinned folks for a few attacks whilst white terrorism is cited as lone wolf / mental issues within hours of the crime.
I’ll say it again. This Christmas is the 8th anniversary of the Nigerian Underwear Bomber and the 22nd is the 16th anniversary of the British Shoe Bomber
If you are from a country with a terrorist problem or have relatives in one, you have zero right or credibility to complain about added security protocol. This country has been under constant threat of terrorism since Clinton killed Osama bin Laden’s goats. If you don’t like it, leave. If you are a us citizen, immigrate or deal with it.
CAIR is a front group for the MB. They aren’t really credible. Yes I am Muslim. They’re agitators with a major agenda, which is seriously divisive.
The entire airport security screening process is a sham, and there is no part of it that is worse than the expedited
screening processes like pre-Check and Global Entry. In the former case, airlines are allowed to designate which
of their customers are eligible, and in the latter, it is almost entirely a case of money.
I’ll use myself as an example. When these programs started, I was working in the war business, and had held a TS
clearance for several decades, in addition to some special access clearances. I was traveling 100 000+ miles per
year on business, and despite all that I was subjected to the same airport bullshit as suspected terrorists or people
who happen to have Muslim-sounding last names. Later, after I left the dark side, United decided I was worthy of
being in the pre-Check group. If I wanted to shell out the money, I would get to skip the lines at US passport control,
too. It has nothing to do with whether or not I am actually a security threat, just status and money.
Somehow, that is not reassuring.
If it were up to me, anybody with a passport and valid ticket who made it through the metal detector and whose
luggage made it through the x-ray machine would be allowed to board the plane. Period. Everybody would
wait in the same lines, and be subjected to those same checks.
“. . . It has nothing to do with whether or not I am actually a security threat, just status and money. Somehow, that is not reassuring.”
Particularly since the 9/11 hijackers posed as wealthy Saudi playboys learning to be pilots, and on the day of 9/11, bought first-class tickets specifically to avoid extra scrutiny at check-in. One-size-fits-all is obviously, as you say, the better approach.
It certainly shows the true motive behind the “terrorism” propaganda campaign, doesn’t it? I’m so grateful I don’t have to travel anymore, I did so for a decade and it got so bad towards the end, that I almost got arrested as I no longer had the tolerance for the BS anymore. I have no doubts that I would have ended in jail sooner or later as a result.
Great comment!
1 – this has changed, they are not able to as easily
2 – the can do this because they have all the info needed in your freq flier account
3 – GE takes more info that pre check
The thing you miss is that as a person who takes 100+ flights a year being able to bypass the “uninitiated” helps. It has nothing to do with much else than that. I never wait behind the family of 5 on the way to Disney…
Anyhow for the most part I do agree, airport security is BS.
#2: Really? How does United know that upon arrival at FRA that I did not jump the next plane to Damascas? They don’t.
Then, when I get back to FRA and go to board the flight home, their profilers ask me where I’ve been. How do they know I am not lying? They don’t.
#3: Almost all the processes for awarding clearances, whether GE or SI/TK are inadequate to detect the true threats.
Look at the cases of Adrich Ames or Robert Hansen, who passed SSBIs and polygraph exams for decades before being caught.
The system is designed to catch the small fish, the kid who smoked a couple of joints and makes the mistake of reporting it
when he wants to go to Marines OCS. Anyone with half a brain can game the childishly simple methods used to grant clearances.
I return to the last paragraph in my original post.. I do not care if the guy sittning next to me on the airplane is a racist, nazi,
terrorist, whatever. As long as he is unarmed and behaves himself, he has just as much right to fly as I do.
Now that sir, is a true American outlook.
It’s open season on Arabs and Muslims except for the Saudis. Jeff Sessions must be creaming in his jeans while Trump is simply shitting in his.