Muslim Americans Urge Ninth Circuit to Hold Government Accountable for Illegal Religious Questioning by Border Officers

SAN FRANCISCO — The American Civil Liberties Union and its partners argued today in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on behalf of three Muslim Americans who are challenging their unconstitutional religious questioning by U.S. border officers. When the three men return home to the U.S. from traveling abroad, border officers ask them inappropriate religious questions, including whether they are Muslim, whether they attend a mosque, whether they are Sunni or Shi’a, and how often they pray. Officers then input the answers in a law enforcement database, where the private religious information is retained for up to 75 years.

“U.S. border officers routinely interrogate our clients and countless other Muslim Americans about their personal religious beliefs, simply because they are Muslim,” said Ashley Gorski, senior staff attorney with ACLU’s National Security Project. “We are in court today because this religious questioning is demeaning, intrusive, and unconstitutional. We’re fighting for our clients’ rights to be treated equally and to practice their faith without undue government scrutiny.”

Filed in March of 2022, the lawsuit alleges that U.S. border officers’ questioning of Muslims about their religious beliefs and practices violates Fifth Amendment protections against unequal treatment on the basis of religion, as well as the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Although the district court concluded that the plaintiffs had plausibly alleged that the government targets Muslims for religious questioning, it nevertheless granted the government’s motion to dismiss the suit. The plaintiffs are asking the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to reinstate the case.

“I am proud to be a Muslim,” said plaintiff Imam Abdirahman Aden Kariye, a religious leader in Bloomington, Minn. “But whenever I cross the border back home to the United States, I’m so anxious that I avoid calling any attention to my faith. It’s terrible to feel you have to hide an essential part of who you are from your own government. I shouldn’t be questioned because of my religion.”

This questioning is part of a broader decades-long practice of border officers targeting Muslim American travelers because of their religion. In 2010, for example, the ACLU and other organizations submitted complaints to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) describing the questioning of Muslim Americans about their religious beliefs and practices at international airports and other border crossings. And as recently as 2020, the DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties was investigating new allegations that CBP officers have inappropriately questioned travelers about their religious beliefs and practices.

The ACLU, the ACLU of Minnesota, the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, and Cooley LLP represent the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. The defendants being sued are Alejandro Mayorkas, secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security; Troy Miller, acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection; Patrick J. Lechleitner, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; and Katrina W. Berger, executive associate director, Homeland Security Investigations.