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Muslims detained at border sue Homeland Security
NEW YORK , April 20, 2005 - Five American Muslims detained at the border as they returned from an Islamic conference in Toronto sued the Department of Homeland Security today alleging they were targets of ethnic and religious profiling. They told a news conference that customs officials detained dozens of others returning from the conference in December, subjecting them to interrogations, fingerprinting and photographing.
The five American Muslims traveled separately and arrived at the checkpoint throughout the afternoon and night. Travelers who told agents they had attended the conference titled "Reviving the Islamic Spirit" were held for questioning, and women wearing hijab were asked whether they had attended the conference, according to the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court by the New York Civil Liberties Union and the Council for American-Islamic Relations.
The lawsuit seeks to prevent government agencies from detaining, interrogating or photographing Muslims returning to the United States from religious conferences. The five Muslims want their fingerprints and photographs taken at the border destroyed or expunged.
The lawsuit, which seeks no monetary damages, asks the U.S. District Court to: declare that the Department of Homeland Security violated the constitutional rights of the five American Muslims, stop border agents from detaining Muslims merely because they are returning from a religious conference, and order the government to return or destroy all fingerprints and photos of these people.
The civil rights attorneys involved in the case want to know if the actions taken that night are part of a broader policy targeting Muslim citizens attending such religious events. "The government must explain to the American people why it is harassing citizens who are attending religious conferences," said Corey Stoughton, an ACLU attorney.
How would the community react, Udi Ofer (a civil liberties attorney with the New York Civil Liberties Union) wondered, if local Catholics were detained for hours and fingerprinted upon returning from the installation of Pope Benedict XVI? "It is the same First Amendment-protected rights of free speech, association and religious expression," Ofer said in announcing the federal lawsuit filed on behalf of five Muslim-Americans. “Today American Muslims are being targeted. Tomorrow, it could be Catholic Americans. That's why it's important to (protect) the constitutional rights of free speech and religious expression."
"They were the victims once again of our government's overzealous and counterproductive ethnic and religious profiling in the name of national security," said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the NYCLU.
Homeland Security reaction
A spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection could say little since the December incident is now in litigation, but Barry Morrisey did say that the agency stood by its earlier statements.
Shortly after the incident, a Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman said agents were acting on information that conferences such as the one in Toronto can be a means for terrorists to promote their cause. "As the front-line border agency, it is our duty to verify the identity of individuals — including U.S. citizens — and one way of doing that is fingerprinting," spokeswoman Kristie Clemens said at the time.
Homeland security officials had confirmed that 34 people were selected for the secondary questioning at Queenston Lewiston Bridge and four others at Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls. None was charged with a crime.
Eyewitness accounts
"I felt helpless and powerless," said Galeb Rizek, 32, of Niagara Falls. "I felt like I didn't belong in the United States, even though I was born here and don't know any other country." Rizek doesn't object to strong security measures at the border, as long as everyone receives the same type of treatment. "I'm totally against terrorism," he said. "I want to be protected. I'm an American, too."
"I felt very humiliated," added Karema Atassi, 22, of Williamsville, who was detained for about five hours. "I didn't know why I was there." Atassi said border agents clearly didn't want to detain the Muslims. One agent was in tears and suggested that those detained complain about their treatment.
In all, almost 40 Muslims were stopped on their way back into the United States after the December conference. None was charged. Several Muslims from the Rochester area attended the annual "Reviving the Islamic Spirit" conference, including Hany Ghoneim, a mechanical engineering professor at Rochester Institute of Technology who recently gave this account of his family's experience:
When he, his wife and 7-year-old son reached the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge on Dec. 26, they were told to get out of their car and then waited while agents spent an hour and half searching it and the contents. He and his wife were asked: Do you have a bomb in the car? What were you doing in Toronto? What is this Muslim CD? Why did you go to Egypt? "When they asked what we were doing in Canada, I didn't have to tell them that we went to the conference," Ghoneim said. "I could have lied, but I am Muslim. I can't lie." He and his wife were told to face a wall and raise their arms so they could be searched and then they were fingerprinted — all in front of their son.
Ghoneim said he understands that safety precautions need to be taken. "But body search and fingerprints are not proper, decent ways to treat an old U.S. citizen professor and his wife, in particular, in the company of their son," he wrote to Customs officials. "It is a degrading experience with a negative impact. What kind of message are you trying to convey to us? What do you expect this experience will have on the Muslim community?"
Sawsan Tabbaa, 43, an orthodontist in Buffalo, took her four children in the family van for their third trip to the conference, which featured imam Hamza Yusuf. Yusuf is a prominent scholar who visited the White House in the days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to pray with President Bush and endorse his plans for military action. Tabbaa, who wears hijab, said that at 2 a.m. Dec. 27 she arrived at the border checkpoint where agents asked her about the conference and instructed her to wait inside the customs building. Inside, she said, "I saw all the people from my Islamic community."
Tabbaa, a Syrian-born naturalized citizen, said agents refused to let her leave unless she submitted to fingerprinting. After several hours, she said, a female agent escorted her to a room to demonstrate the procedure. "She just grabbed my hand and [began] fingerprinting it," Tabbaa said. "I was just forced to do it. She grabbed my hand."
Several businesses and homes in Rochester area have been visited by federal agents and many Muslims — including people who didn't attend the conference in Toronto — have stories of being detained at the border.
Obaida Omar of Brighton said she was held at the Rainbow Bridge crossing in Niagara Falls for four or five hours in February while her brother was handcuffed and questioned. Her mother, also in the vehicle, became so upset that she fainted and had to be taken to the hospital, Omar said. She said officials told her that her brother's name was on a list of suspects, but they eventually released him. "I keep thinking about it," said Omar, a mother of three who is a dental hygiene student. "I can't think. I can't study. "Why? That question just keeps coming." (Source Media Reports)
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