CHICAGO -- Nine American citizens from across the country today joined
together in an effort to force the federal government to implement changes to
the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Terrorist Screening Center (TSC) and the
policies of Customs and Border Protection that will ensure innocent Americans
are not subjected to humiliating and unnecessary detentions and harassment by
federal officials when they re-enter the United States.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois filed a federal lawsuit in
Chicago today on behalf of the nine individuals who have been subjected to
repeated lengthy stops, questioning, body searches, handcuffing, excessive
force, separation from family members and confinement by customs officers
when they return to the United States from travel abroad. The plaintiffs all
report being unnecessarily delayed, while some recite tales of being shackled
to a chair for hours and others had their automobiles surrounded by agitated
guards with firearms -- a frightening sight for their young children.
"It simply is not necessary for the government to detain these Americans for
lengthy periods of time in the fashion in which they have been treated," said
Harvey Grossman of the ACLU of Illinois in announcing the lawsuit. "The
fault lies in the chaotic operations of the Terrorism Screening Center and
inappropriate responses by customs officials. Indeed, FBI Director Mueller
recently declined to predict that the problems in the TSC could be repaired in
five years. Innocent Americans should not be compelled to bear repeated
abuse simply because the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security cannot
correct their own mistakes."
The complaint filed today builds on a lawsuit filed last year by Akif Rahman,
a native born United States citizen who lives in suburban Chicago with his wife
Masooda. Rahman has been detained and questioned by Department of Homeland
Security (DHS) officials on five separate occasions since March 2004 as he
re-entered the country after business or personal trips abroad. Four of
the detentions lasted much longer than was reasonably required for determining
Rahman's identity and allowing him to proceed into the United States. On
one occasion, Rahman was subjected to unnecessary excessive force during a body
search and shackled to a chair for approximately three hours while isolated from
his wife and children.
Another plaintiff, Dr. Sammy Rehman, a radiologist from the Chicago area, was
detained on June 9, 2005. Dr. Rehman and his family, his mother and his
mother-in-law were returning to the United States from a visit in Canada.
After Dr. Rehman gave a border officer his passport, federal agents surrounded
the family car, holding their hands on their holstered guns. One agent
identified Dr. Rehman as "A and D" (armed and dangerous). Armed guards
then led Dr. Rehman away from his family and detained him for approximately two
hours.
"This event was terrifying for me, for my wife and for our 7-year-old son,"
said Dr. Rehman. "The physically threatening nature of these stops and
detentions seem to be escalating."
The ACLU said the nine plaintiffs named in the lawsuit represent thousands of
individuals who are stopped, questioned, abused and harassed at points of entry
to the country each year as a result of flaws in the TSC. According
to a U.S. Department of Justice report, the TSC administers a database with more
than 200,000 names of persons who are claimed by the government to have "any
degree of terrorism nexus." However, the report found that the process for
classifying these individuals is flawed, resulting in many individuals being
"over-classified" and considered dangerous when they pose no real threat to our
nation. The Justice Department report alson found that mistakes in
the database cause many individuals to be "misidentified" and subject to more
scrutiny than is necessary. As a result of these problems, the plaintiffs
in today's lawsuit collectively have been stopped and questioned on more than 30
occasions, despite the fact that they are law-abiding citizens. On each
occasion, the plaintiffs have been cleared for re-entry to the United States
only after punitive detentions.
In addition to the Rahmans and Dr. Rehman and his wife Riffat Mehmood, the
ACLU plaintiffs include: Niaz Anwar from suburban Boston; Khalid Bhatti, a
physician in gastroenterology in Troy, New York; Shimrote Ishaque, a pharmacist
in Seattle, Washington; Osama Jammal, an educational video producer from
suburban Chicago; and Dr. Elie Khoury, an OB/GYN in practice in Detroit, and his
wife Farideh Khoury.
The plaintiffs ask the federal court to order the FBI and DHS to adopt
polices that ensure expeditious reentry to the United States for citizens who
are over-classified or misidentified, and to institute adequate training and
supervision to ensure that citizens are not unduly detained and harassed upon
entering the country.
Roger Pascall, Everett Cygal, Paula Ketcham, and Joshua Lee of the Chicago
law firm Schiff Hardin LLP are assisting the ACLU of Illinois in this case,
along with Junaid M. Afeef of Hoffman Estates, Sarah Wunsch of the ACLU of
Massachusetts, Kary Moss and Michael Steinberg of the ACLU of Michigan, Noel
Salah of Detroit and Aaron H. Caplan of the ACLU of Washington.
Read plaintiffs statements >>
Read the complaint
>> (off-site link, PDF)
