Attorney representing a student protester detained by federal immigration agents
old.reddit.comTo be clear -- the attorney is a US Citizen who was returning from a trip outside of the US.
Border agents pressured Makled to hand over his cell phone. He refused. After more than 90 minutes of back-and-forth, he eventually showed agents his contacts list. He was eventually released. Makled says he was never given a reason for his detainment.
However, one of his current clients is a student who has been charged in connection to a pro-Palestinian protest at the University of Michigan.
Guy folded like a tent in 90 minutes and gave up his contacts. Attorneys talk a big game about remaining silent, but in the end can't even stand up to a 90 minute intimidation session.
I've been through the wringer including shackled, strip searched, locked up with crazy Mexicans, cbp tell me lies until their face turns blue about revoking passports or not being let through into your own country. Don't be like this guy, they will usually give up after locking you up for a day or so.
We all know from the Snowden files that they don’t actually need to see his contacts.
They knew everything about him already. This was just intimidation.
> they will usually give up after locking you up for a day or so.
If you think that anything about what is happening in the U.S. is business as usual well…
> They knew everything about him already. This was just intimidation.
That also means that anything he says that isn’t a perfectly accurate recollection becomes lying to a Federal agent.
I think you're blaming exactly the wrong person here.
I know who to blame. I think I know exactly what protocol they were shaking down on this guy because my passport was flagged on a similar list after fighting in a Syrian militia for a US ally that US government employees often support. Which isn't illegal, but for whatever reason seems to have pissed off CBP.
The point is you're dealing with a hostile agency that hates Americans. You can't control what unaccountable tyrants do, only what you do.
It's all fun and games until they ship you to a concentration camp in some Central American country.
I look around at half of the people around me and feel like they would look the other way if I were disappeared.
The sad part is that most of us would be like that. I know I am.
I don't say this with pride, mind you. But it annoys me to no end when people LARP as if they would be like the ones who helped Jews hide in places occupied by Germany when things were getting ugly in late 1930s. Those people are rare.
You see, it takes a lot of fortitude to stand up to tiranny. You are effectively putting the well being of you and yours on the line. Especially now that I have a child, I am very sure I would look the other way in that scenario, hoping I was not the next.
The mistake is taking one incident and attributing it to an entire class of people. Just because one man has been a creep in the past doesn't mean that all men are creeps/one woman has acted crazy in the past doesn't mean that all women are crazy.
Attorney client privilege means something, and a different attorney in the same situation would have acted differently.
Link to article: https://www.npr.org/2025/04/09/nx-s1-5357455/attorney-detain...
Not reddit, not flagged: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43647939