Nearly 60 people, including two Asian American journalists, are among those under federal government surveillance due to their connection to a migrant caravan into the United States from Central America, according to documents obtained by NBC San Diego’s Mari Payton.
The journalists identified by the report include photojournalists Go Nakaumura and Bing Chen Guan, both who are citizens of the United States. Documents revealed alerts were placed on the passports of both men. The information is used by agents from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the U.S. Border Patrol, Homeland Security Investigations and some agents from the San Diego sector of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), according to NBC San Diego.
Nakamura and Guan both covered the caravan as part of their jobs, as did the eight other journalists on the list. The other 50 or so people are identified as attorneys or advocates who worked with or witnessed the caravan and the events surrounding it.
The screenshots showing documents detailing the surveillance were leaked to NBC 7 by an unnamed Homeland Security source, who told the station, “We are a criminal investigation agency, we’re not an intelligence agency. ... This is an abuse of the Border Search Authority.”
Some of the images indicate the dossiers on specific people included photographs, birthdates, work descriptions, and information about whether or not they had been previously interrogated or arrested by authorities.
“The implications of this are really disturbing,” she told the Santa Fe New Mexican. “It is unconstitutional for the government to target people for punishment or retaliation solely based on their First Amendment-protected activity.”
Nakamura is based out of New York and his portfolio on his website features mostly photos shot around the world. Guan is also based in New York. He graduated from Columbia University with a BA in history in 2017. In his Linked-In profile, Guan describes himself as a freelance journalist
Nakumura told AsAmNews by phone that he and Guan were working together
“If I ever want to go back to Mexico to cover the migrants, there’s a big chance I won’t be able to go back in again,” he said. “At this point I’m not sure that I’m scared or not. They didn’t do anything physical to me. I’m just on the list.”
Nakamura said he suspected something was going on when he was stopped by Mexican police and a photo was taken of his passport. When he tried to cross the border back into the United States, he was pulled over for a secondary inspection. He recalls being questioned for an hour by a border patrol agent.
“They asked me all those questions about my background, what I was doing in Mexico. I answered honestly. Most of the time I was independent-freelancing. I managed to pick up job from Reuters .”
This is the second time this has happened to Nakumura. He remembers going through much of the same scrutiny after returning from Iraq in 2016. He said things returned to normal after about six months.
Still, Nakamura described his experience in Mexico as “weird,” but “not scared.”
Freelance photographer Mark Abramson was asjed whether he could identify the leaders of the migrant caravan. Abramson says it's his job to inform the public, not the U.S. government.
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Most of the families coming from Central America are legally asking for asylum. |
Alexandra Ellerbeck with the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists says they have received complaints from as many as eight journalists who were referred to secondary inspections at U.S. border entries and asked similar questions. In one case, two U.S. photographers were shown pictures and asked them to identify so-called instigators of the caravan. Ellerbeck says the attempt to get information from journalists about their sources or their reporting or information they're gathering - "has huge implications for press freedom."
Members of Congress have expressed concern about the news. Representatives Bennie Thompson, D-MS, and Kathleen Rice, D-NY, wrote a letter to the commissioner of the U.S. Border Patrol, Kevin McAlleenan.
“The appearance that CBP is targeting journalists, lawyers and advocates and particularly those who work on immigration matters or report on border and immigration issues, raises questions about possible misuse of CBP’s border search authority and requires oversight to ensure the protection of Americans legal and constitutional rights, “ the letter states.
CBP says the names on the list are those people who were present during violence that broke out on the border. The spokesperson said journalists are being tracked in an attempt to learn what started the violence.
“It is protocol following these incidents to collect evidence that might be needed to future legal actions and to determine if the event was orchestrated,” the CBP said in a statement. “CBP and our law enforcement partners evaluate these incidents, follow all leads garnered from information collected, conduct interviews and investigations, in preparation for, and often to prevent future incidents that could cause further harm to the public, our agents, and our economy.”
“The existence of these dossiers can have a real chilling effect,” Bhandari said. “It can suggest to other journalists that if they dare to report on activists that are embarrassing to the United States government, you too can be singled out for this harsh treatment.”
Views From the Edge contributed to this report.
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