If confirmed, this means U.S. border officials harassed U.S. citizens, including their young children, because of who they are, and possibly lied about it. One of those harassed Iranian Americans, Negah Hekmati wrote in an op-ed for The Washington Post that the five-hour long ordeal “terrified my children. That night, as we walked through the chilly parking lot, they were bursting with questions we couldn’t answer. My daughter told me, urgently, not to speak Farsi. If I didn’t speak Farsi, she said, they wouldn’t know that we were from Iran, and we wouldn’t get into trouble.”

“CBP officials had previously denied issuing any such directive,” NBC News said in its report on Thursday, a statement that now stands to be scrutinized even more with this document coming to light. The Washington Post reports that Rep. Pramila Jayapal’s office is working to verify its authenticity. “It is becoming increasingly clear from multiple conversations with travelers and CBP staff that there was, indeed, a directive from the Seattle Field Office to target Iranian Americans for secondary screening based on their country of origin and despite the fact that they were largely American citizens, legal permanent residents and legal visa holders,” she said according to The Post.