‘An attack on lawyers’: Dearborn attorney says fed agents detained him at Detroit airport
A Dearborn lawyer said federal agents detained him Sunday at Detroit Metro Airport and pressured him to turn over his phone in what he called an “attack on lawyers.”
Amir Makled said he was interrogated for an hour and a half after he returned home from a family trip to the Dominican Republic on Sunday evening.
He alleges the agents targeted him because he’s representing clients accused of crimes that run counter to President Donald Trump’s policies, including his representation of a pro-Palestinian demonstrator arrested last year following a protest at the University of Michigan.
He said the run-in at the airport is a troubling sign the Trump administration is now working to intimidate attorneys for political ends.
“This is an attack on lawyers,” he said. “This is an attempt to dissuade lawyers from taking on these kinds of causes. We are the ones who carry clients on our back and see them through the legal process.”
The incident transpired about two weeks after Trump issued a memo calling for “accountability” for “lawyers and law firms that engage in actions that violate the laws of the United States or rules governing attorney conduct.”
In the memo, Trump directed the U.S. Attorney General’s Office to “take all appropriate action to refer for disciplinary action any attorney whose conduct in Federal court or before any component of the Federal Government appears to violate professional conduct rules.”
The agents got a look at his contact list, Makled said, but despite the lengthy interrogation, he defied the agents and ultimately was released without having relinquished his phone.
“My iPhone is my entire office system,” he said. “It has all my communications, all my contacts. … It would be impossible for me to determine what would be privileged (information) and what wouldn’t be privileged.
“As an attorney, I’m not giving that up under any circumstances.”
A Michigan-based spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Makled, 38, is the attorney for Samantha Lewis, one of several demonstrators arrested last year following a pro-Palestinian protest on the UM campus. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has charged each with resisting arrest and obstructing police.
Makled called on Nessel, a Democrat, to reconsider her case against the students and other demonstrators charged in connection with the protests.
“As a Democratic leader … why do you want to do the bidding of Trump, potentially adding criminal convictions on these young adults?” Makled said.