A few months ago in October, Suri, an Iranian American woman who lives in Massachusetts, and three of her friends went on a road trip to Quebec City, Canada, to celebrate her 57th birthday.

The group of women, who have been friends for decades, piled into Suris car for a couple of days of sightseeing. The celebrations went off without a hitch until it was time to come home.

U.S. border agents at the Derby Line crossing in Vermont ordered the women, who are all using pseudonyms for fear of retaliation, to exit the car and told them they were being randomly selected for secondary screening. The women, all American citizens of Iranian descent, looked at each other with raised eyebrows. They knew this was not random.

When youre held at the border, you dont see a lot of other people with blue eyes and blond hair who were also stopped, said Suris friend Fariba, a 52-year-old saleswoman who has been an American citizen for over 30 years. Its challenging to travel, and its only getting worse.

Earlier this month, soon after President Donald Trump ordered the killing of a top Iranian government official and the nation vowed to retaliate, news broke that U.S. border agents held nearly 200 people of Iranian descent without explanation at the Washington state border with Canada. U.S. Customs and Border Protection disputed the claim that officers detained Iranian Americans at the Peace Arch border crossing, but dozens of news reports described otherwise.

Some people were held for more than 10 hours . Nearly all of those held at the crossing were questioned about their place of birth, details of their family affairs, and were forced to hand over personal information such as where they worked, home addresses and phone numbers.

Activists and politicians demanded that CBP explain why those individuals, some of whom were U.S. citizens or permanent residents, were stopped, and the Department of Homeland Security announced it had opened an investigation .