Civil Rights Lawyers Sue Ashcroft
Wed Apr 17,12:32 PM ET
By TOM HAYS, Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK (AP) - Civil rights attorneys sued Attorney
General John Ashcroft and other U.S.
officials Wednesday, alleging widespread abuse of
hundreds of Middle Eastern men detained on
immigration violations after Sept. 11.
The class action lawsuit filed in federal court says the
plaintiffs have been subjected to unreasonable and
excessively harsh conditions. It asks a judge to issue an
order protecting the detainees' due process rights and to
appoint a monitor to oversee their treatment.
The Center for Constitutional Rights in New York said
the lawsuit was the first alleging jailhouse abuse to be
filed on behalf of the detainees. Some are still behind
bars.
Several lawsuits have been filed on behalf of detainees
elsewhere, including some calling for a ban on secret
Immigration and Naturalization Service hearings.
"There's no explanation for why they're being held,"
center attorney Barbara Olshansky said. "These people
are being treated worse than criminals."
In some cases, detainees were "placed in tiny,
windowless cells for over 23 hours a day," the suit
alleges. "Many class members have suffered physical and
verbal abuse by their guards. Some were badly beaten."
Spokesmen for the Justice Department
and INS declined to comment before the suit was
filed. But INS spokesman Bill Strassberger said the
government insists on a high standard of treatment for
detainees.
The plaintiffs cite several examples of poor treatment,
including the case of Asif-ur-Rehman Saffi, a native of
Pakistan, who was arrested at La Guardia Airport in New
York on Sept. 30 after his tourist visa expired.
Although an immigration judge ordered him to be
deported, the lawsuit alleges he was jailed until March
and locked in an isolation unit. Guards allegedly
subjected him to strip searches and "severe beatings to
the point of unconsciousness," the suit said.
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