Nicole Cleland was following a vehicle of federal agents in Richfield, Minnesota, on Jan. 10 when a member of Border Patrol stepped out and approached her car. The agent startled Cleland by addressing her by her first name, she recalled. He said they were using facial recognition technology, and warned her to stop “impeding” their work or she’d be arrested.
Three days later, Cleland said, she received an email from U.S. Customs and Border Protection informing her she had lost her Global Entry status, one of the government’s “Trusted Traveler” programs that expedites arrival to the U.S.
“As soon as I got the email, I said to my husband, ‘How much do you want to bet this has to do with Saturday?’” said Cleland, who’d been volunteering as a legal observer to track immigration raids in her community. “There’s just way too much coincidence there.”
Cleland is right to wonder about the timing, judging from a recent CBP memo reviewed by HuffPost.
CBP told its field offices in mid-February to send “recommendations to revoke Trusted Traveler membership for U.S. citizens” to headquarters for review, along with an incident report and an “articulated reason” for yanking someone’s trusted status.
