Carrying passports in Washington
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Carrying passports in Washington is John Kiriakou's report of a change in behaviour among residents of the American capital in September 2025, given in a discussion of immigration enforcement and ethnic profiling.

The legal question

The exchange began with a Supreme Court order setting aside a district judge's finding that immigration patrols in Los Angeles were ethnically profiling. Presented with a description of roving stops at car washes and hardware stores, and of freeway checkpoints where officers wave some drivers past and question others, Kiriakou's response was surprise at the law rather than at the practice.

"Yeah. I I agree. I agree. And to tell you the truth, Ted, I thought it was illegal." Pressed on which provision, he named one: "I thought ethnic profiling violated the Fourth Amendment's right um against unlawful search and seizure because there's no there's no just cause." The equal protection clause of the Fourteenth was offered from the chat as the better fit.

What he had heard that weekend

Kiriakou then supplied his own observation, which he introduced as the frightening part. "I heard just over the weekend that people here in DC have begun carrying their passports just because they're afraid of being scooped up."

The violinist

His example concerned a citizen. "There was a story about a a violinist for the was it the Salt Lake City Symphony. He was grabbed and held for three weeks. The guy's an American. He was grabbed and held for three weeks just because just because they know they can get away with it."

Kiriakou names the orchestra with a hedge, "was it the Salt Lake City Symphony", and does not settle it. His conclusion was one word: "Absolutely." Then: "So, I don't know. Seriously."

See also

- FBI Arrest Strategies
- The mobile passport lane
- John Kiriakou
