Allegiance Tensions

"Those detained reported that their passports were confiscated and they were questioned about their political views and allegiances."
"These reports are extremely troubling and potentially constitute illegal detentions of United States citizens." 
"We are working to verify reports of a broad nationwide directive to detain Iranian-Americans at ports of entry so that we can provide community members with accurate travel guidance."
Masih Fouladi, executive director, CAIR Washington (The Council on American-Islamic Relations)

The Council on American-Islamic Relations. | Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Photo

"Social media posts that CBP [Canada Border Security] is detaining Iranian-Americans and refusing their entry into the U.S. because of their country of origin are false."
"Reports that DHS/CBP has issued a related directive are also false."
Michael Friel, U.S.Customs and Border Protection

Peace Arch Park, located at the Canada/U.S. border in South Surrey. (File photo)

Is it really that far-fetched that border agencies in both Canada and the United States are on special alert given the situation in the Middle East at the present time, where Iran has indicated in no uncertain terms that it plans to extract vengeance from the United States and its allies for the killing of al Quds IRGC commander Qassem Soleimani and his Iraqi counterpart along with other known terrorist militia members by use of a U.S. drone's precision missiles on Thursday?

These are terrorists who were targeted for extinction, representing a terrorist-sponsoring theocracy. The al-Quds branch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps and their Hezbollah proxies are on the terror lists of most Western democracies. The toxic jihad that the Islamic Republic of Iran embarked upon with the Iranian revolution left no doubt that it viewed the West as an enemy, and its ongoing hostile and violent acts simply verified the early impressions, indelible as they were.

That Iranians living in Canada felt secure and entitled enough to fly a Hezbollah flag alongside that of Iran during a memorial vigil for the late, lamented Soleimani, several days ago in Toronto, mourning him as a Iranian patriot of heroic proportions despite that he was responsible for the violent deaths of thousands of people, and that he represents a state whose intention is to eradicate another state from its ancestral home in the Middle East, threatening others, and calling for the destruction of the U.S. leaves no question where their sympathies and loyalties lie.

It is, therefore, not very far-fetched to suspect that members of the Iranian community, whether with American or Canadian citizenship could have among them those committed to committing terrorist acts in either country. It  is no secret that Iran's tentacles embrace its nationals living abroad. Both countries' intelligence agencies are on high alert, and with good reason.

For the safety of all concerned, including those detained for several additional hours while transiting the two countries, this is no more than an inconvenience, given the tense and dangerous situation.The Council on American-Islamic Relations is itself an Islamic group whose presence is that of infiltrators whose affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood, a powerful front for Islamist affairs is well enough known.

Both Canada and the United States host large expatriate Iranian population groups, the largest in fact anywhere in the world outside Iran itself, the vast majority of whom are loyal to their adopted countries since they fled the regime of the Shiite Islamist Ayatollahs. Even so, the presence of large numbers of Iranians crossing the B.C. border to Washington State would raise an alarm under current circumstances.

The explanation that the Iranians in unexpected and unusual numbers had been attending an Iranian pop concert in Vancouver seems peculiarly incidental to the events that took place in Iraq last week involving the second most consequential leader of the Iranian Republic and the subsequent outrage and promises of vengeance. Wait times at the Blaine crossing were increased an average of two hours on Saturday evening, an inconvenience of irritating proportions. But then, these are unusual times.

Take, for example, the fact that Soleimani's daughter Zeinab has American citizenship....

On the other hand, the border services point to additional factors above and aside from the unsettling conditions prevailing from the Middle East to North America; at the border crossings a reduced staff is present, reflecting holiday staffing, as well as an unexpected increase in the volume of traffic transiting the border. So anguished cries of human rights abuses are somewhat less than compelling.

This makes headlines? Reports of up to 60 people of Iranian descent were held at the Peace Arch crossing this weekend!

Border Patrol agents  US Customs and Border Protection  [File: Eric Gay/AP Photo]