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Chicago Tribune - June 29, 2005
Chicagoan stranded at the border files lawsuit
What's in a name? Trouble, that's what
By Kelly Kennedy
When Akif Rahman returns home to the United States after visiting family in Canada over the 4th of July weekend, he doesn't expect a warm welcome.
The last time Rahman, 32, drove over the border, guards in Detroit stopped the Chicago man, handcuffed him to a chair and grilled him for six hours about whether he has terrorist connections, Rahman said. Officials detained his wife and two children in a small, dirty office while Rahman was questioned, he said.
He has been stopped five times.
"I really need to find out what's going on," Rahman said Tuesday at a press conference in the Loop offices of the Illinois chapter American Civil Liberties Union. "I can travel to any country--Canada or otherwise--and get through in a few minutes, but coming back home ..."
On Tuesday, lawyers from the Illinois chapter of the ACLU filed a lawsuit against Homeland Security Department officials, saying Rahman's Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights were violated when he was allegedly seized and searched with excessive force, then not allowed to make phone calls.
"They're using a very, very crude screening system," said Harvey Grossman, legal director for the Illinois ACLU. "There are thousands and thousands and thousands of names on various watch-lists our government keeps. We don't know whose name he is similar to."
In a letter to Rahman, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement department stated that his name is a "near match" to another person in the National Crime Information Center list maintained by the FBI.
Grossman hopes to see a better screening system as well as stricter regulations limiting what border guards can do.
The problems began in spring 2004, when Rahman, the owner of a software company in Chicago, was detained for two hours at Los Angeles International Airport, Rahman said. He was born in the United States to parents who emigrated from India, ACLU spokesman Edwin Yohnka said. Rahman and his parents are U.S. citizens.
In August 2004, Rahman was again detained for two hours, this time at O'Hare International Airport. Agents told him they were trying to identify him, though he carried his driver's license, passport and Social Security card.
Rahman said he wrote six or seven letters to government agencies to find out why he was being detained. In the meantime, he was stopped twice more. In April 2005, he received a letter from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency of the Department of Homeland Security. It states that Rahman's detentions resulted from an "unfortunate misidentification scenario."
Grossman said Rahman's name in Arab-speaking countries is similar to "John Smith" in English-speaking countries, and the government is apparently looking for someone connected with terrorism with a name similar to Rahman's.
The letter also states that the government corrected databases but advises Rahman to carry several forms of identification.
Rahman said he was carrying his passport, Social Security card and Illinois driver's license when he was stopped May 8, this time at the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel coming back from visiting family in Canada.
"Whatever comfort I should have drawn from the April letter from the government collapsed," Rahman said.
Rahman said border guards ordered him to turn off the car and hand over his keys. Two agents took his wife and two children to a room by themselves. Rahman and his wife, Moosada, didn't see each other for six hours, Rahman said.
"We knew there would be some extended questioning because we had been stopped before," Moosada Rahman said. "But then they took him away. I didn't know what was happening to him."
Akif Rahman said agents took him to a room and took his cell phone. He was asked to empty his pockets, then face a wall and spread his feet.
"An officer yelled at me to spread my legs further," Rahman said. "Before I could do so, the officer kicked my legs apart with great force. He then demanded that I take my shoes off. Before I could complete the request, he kicked one of my shoes off my foot."
From there, he was led to another room and handcuffed to a chair, he said. Then, he said, agents asked him if he knew any of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack hijackers and if he had ever given money to a terrorist group.
"This made me feel like a suspect," Rahman said, "not an American citizen returning home."
And, he said, the questions weren't about proving his identity.
Rahman said he understands that security has to be tighter as the country faces new security threats, but he doesn't understand why his information is not stored in a database. Moosada Rahman, who was born in Canada, said she has traveled by herself and has not had any problems.
Grossman said the ACLU has had several complaints about U.S. citizens facing similar treatment. Tuesday's suit, which seeks class-action status, asks for compensatory and punitive damages. The number of U.S. citizens held at the border has gone up since March 2004, but Grossman doesn't know why……
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/west/chi-0506290214jun29,1,1575056.story?coll=chi-newslocalwest-hed
ACLU – June 28, 2005
U.S. citizen and his family sue DHS
to end detentions and harassment triggered
by misidentification on re-entry to U.S.
CHICAGO, June 28, 2005 -- After a nearly six-hour ordeal at the United States-Canada border -- during which he 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 -- the owner of a suburban Chicago computer software company and his family today asked a federal district court to order the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to remedy policies that caused this, and three other unlawful detentions, because he was misidentified.
Akif Rahman, a native born United States citizen, today described the May 8, 2005 detention at the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel as the most harrowing and frightening example in an escalating series of detentions that began fifteen months ago. Since March 2004, Mr. Rahman was detained and questioned by DHS on five separate occasions as he re-entered the country after business or personal trips abroad. Four of the detentions lasted unnecessarily long periods of time (anywhere from two to six hours), longer than was reasonably required for determining Mr. Rahman's identity and allowing him to proceed into the United States. According to an April 2005 letter from a DHS component agency to Mr. Rahman, all of his difficulties are the direct result of an "unfortunate misidentification scenario."
"The situation was frightening and intimidating," said Mr. Rahman in announcing the lawsuit. "I simply could not believe what was happening. I am an American citizen, simply re-entering my own country. Even after I presented multiple forms of valid identification as recommended by the Department of Homeland Security, I was handcuffed for approximately three hours and guarded like a felon for nearly six hours. The policies that caused this to happen to me or other innocent persons must be changed."
According to the lawsuit filed today by the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, Mr. Rahman was improperly detained four times in the last 15 months upon his reentry to the United States from abroad. Those occasions occurred at Los Angeles International Airport in March 2004; Chicago O'Hare International Airport in August 2004; Montreal Airport in September 2004; and at the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel on May 8, 2005. The May 2005 stop became a nightmare for the entire Rahman family.
After the first few detentions, Mr. Rahman contacted several governmental agencies and filed a series of Freedom of Information Act requests in order to learn why he was being subjected to these detentions and harassment. In April 2005, the Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) agency of DHS wrote to Mr. Rahman indicating that his problem was "the direct result of an unfortunate misidentification scenario." The ICE official told Mr. Rahman that they had taken steps to correct government databases in order to address the situation and advised him to carry multiple forms of identification when traveling abroad. Mr. Rahman always carried such identification -- including a passport, driver's license and Social Security card -- when he was detained by DHS officers. Mr. Rahman's name is as universally common as "John Smith." There are hundreds and thousands of persons in the United States with a name that is similar to, or sounds like, Mr. Rahman's, and therefore would be identified for screening by the Border Patrol's computer system.
The events at the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel on May 8th make clear that ICE did not correct the misidentification problem. On that day, the Rahman family was driving home from visiting relatives in Canada. At the Tunnel, they were asked by DHS officials for identification. After reviewing the identification, the officer ordered Mr. Rahman to turn off his car and surrender the keys. Mr. Rahman was escorted from the car by multiple agents, separated from his family and detained for approximately six hours, during which he was shackled to a chair for approximately three hours, and also repeatedly kicked during a search of his person. His wife and children also were detained for six hours in a room with no food for the Rahman's two young children.
"It simply was not necessary for DHS to detain the Rahman family for approximately six hours in order to determine Mr. Rahman's identity," said Harvey Grossman of the ACLU in announcing the lawsuit. "The DHS has stated that the detentions were the result of misidentification. Yet Mr. Rahman presented all the identification DHS said he should need to gain expeditious reentry. No law-abiding U.S. citizen should be treated this way. And, the treatment of Mrs. Rhaman and her children is inexplicable."
The lawsuit filed on Mr. Rahman's behalf asks a federal court to order DHS to adopt polices that ensure expeditious reentry to the United States for U.S. citizens whose names are similar to those on government watch lists, and to institute adequate training and supervision to ensure that U.S. citizens are not unduly detained and harassed upon entering the United States….
A copy of the complaint is available at http://www.aclu-il.org/legal/courtdocuments/rahman.pdf.
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