Trump officials use secret counter-terrorism unit to question border lawyers | Univision Immigration News

Documents that had access to ProPublica showed the many immigration lawyers who worked on it The border between Mexico and the United States Asylum seekers were questioned by members of the Office of Customs and Border Protection (CBP)’s Secret Tactical Response Team against Terrorism.

Among those affected by the policy are lawyers Hector Ruiz and Taylor Levy The question was raised at a border port in El Paso (Texas), they suspect, “aided” the expatriate caravan that was the focus of the Trump administration.

The Immigration Attorney team provided documents to Propablica by the Santa Fe Dreamers program, which submitted a request to Levy and Ruiz about their arrest. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

However, Levy and Ruiz are not alone According to Propaplica, the victim of this practice. In July 2019, three lawyers who immigrated to California filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, accusing it of ordering secret surveillance of their activities and thus violating the First Amendment of the Constitution.

Nora Phillips, co-founder of Al Otro Lato, a Los Angeles-based immigration lawyer Erica Pinhiro, and documentary producer Nathaniel Denison, From the Through My Eyes Foundation, the complaint points out that the federal government has been following their movements and actions since October 2018.

As a result, they were persecuted and detained at the border, and even refused to enter Mexico or were forced to leave Mexican lands.

In the case of Levi and Ruiz, both were questioned about their activities in Mexico, especially if they had been in Tijuana recently. They were also asked about their jobs and educational backgrounds. Ruiz was specifically asked about funding the Santa Fe Dreamers project, where he works as a lawyer.

Agents were ordered to dial Levy and Ruiz (as well as three others) to locate people passing through the entry ports, according to emails published by ProPublica today.

The El Paso CBP intelligence report, written several months after Levy and Ruiz were interrogated, states: “Mass migration from South America United States It is co-ordinated by non-profit organizations to a degree that they like to sort their bags with the proceeds from the expatriate transport fare ”or by paying them to their lawyers.

This report links the work of immigration lawyers with “other groups such as Antifa.”

The administration of President Joe Biden is still embroiled in the cases brought by these cases, and the CBP is awaiting the results of an internal investigation.