Lebanese-American lawyer Amir Makled
Detroit, April 14 (RHC)-- A prominent Lebanese-American lawyer has said he was subjected to politically motivated profiling at a U.S. airport after being flagged by a so-called specialized unit known as the “Tactical Terrorism Response Team (TTRT)” upon his return from an overseas trip.ased attorney known for defending pro-Palestinian activists, told The Guardian that he believed his Arab identity and legal work had made him a target for border officials, the paper reported on Saturday.
Makled had just landed at Detroit Metropolitan Airport following a family vacation in the Dominican Republic when an immigration officer’s demeanor abruptly changed after scanning his passport. “A request was made for a TTRT agent. I Googled it and found out it stands for ‘Tactical Terrorism Response Team’,” he recalled.
Amir Makled was soon approached by a plainclothes officer, who appeared to know his professional background. “They made it clear right off the top: ‘We know that you're an attorney and we know that you're taking on some higher-profile cases.’ That’s when I felt like I was being racially profiled and targeted because I am Arab,” Makled said.
One of his recent cases had involved representing a University of Michigan student arrested during a pro-Palestinian demonstration. The attorney recounted being pressured to surrender access to his phone during the interrogation. Although he initially refused, citing attorney-client privilege, officers threatened to confiscate the device unless he complied.
“They kept telling me they were just going to take the device,” he said. “I needed my device, so under pressure, I let them access my contacts. Then they started asking me about specific names. I didn’t answer.”
Such actions have drawn outright criticism from legal experts. Sophia Cope, a senior attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, warned that the search raised serious constitutional concerns. “That would be completely illegal,” she said. “But because this guy is at the border, somehow now the Fourth Amendment goes away. If they tell him, ‘We know you're a lawyer,’ and then this ‘terrorism flag’ popped up, that's not routine, that’s pre-planned.”
The U.S.’s Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has, however, denied any wrongdoing. Spokesperson Hilton Beckham described Makled’s account as “blatantly false and sensationalized,” insisting that officers “are following the law, not agendas.”
The attorney, though, described the border stop as part of a larger pattern of intimidation aimed at silencing legal advocates and activists critical of the U.S.’s strictly pro-policy and unfaltering support for the Israeli regime.
The development came amid civil liberties groups’ warnings about increasing government scrutiny of and restraining activity against pro-Palestinian activism in the United States.
Under the administration of President Donald Trump, there has been a documented pattern of detaining international students participating in protests, revoking visas, and issuing executive orders aimed at restricting legal representation for asylum seekers and other clients.
Reports have pointed to the efforts leading to widespread detainment of international students involved in protests and revoking the visas of more than 600 students.
“There’s a clear correlation when you think about what’s been happening with student protesters across the country and the administration’s explicit directives targeting attorneys involved in these types of cases,” Makled likewise said.
[ SOURCE: PRESS TV and NEWS AGENCIES ]
