LCHR Gives Justice Department Report on Post-9-11
Detainees an “A-”
LCHR
Letter to Ashcroft Re. Detention Without Charge
Joint
NGO and Practitioner Statement on OIG Report
NEW YORK - The Lawyers Committee welcomes the report released
today by the Justice Department Office of the Inspector General, noting
that it reflects many of the Lawyers Committee’s findings regarding
abuses by the Justice Department of many of the immigrants detained
in the wake of the September 11th attacks.
“I would give this report an A minus,” said Elisa Massimino,
Director of the Washington D.C. office of the Lawyers Committee for
Human Rights. “The report lays out in detail the real-world
consequences of the Attorney General's policy to treat all detainees
as ‘suspected terrorists’: they were physically and verbally
abused, faced enormous obstacles to obtaining legal counsel, and spent
in some cases months in jail without charge.” The report also
confirms that the Department of Justice's frequent characterization
of all September 11th detainees as “suspected terrorists”
was misleading, since there was little or no evidence in the vast
majority of cases suggesting a connection to terrorist activity. “This
detain-first, ask-questions later approach resulted in unjust treatment
of detainees and tied the bureaucracy in knots. It is not an effective
way to combat terrorism,” added Massimino.
In discussing the often non-existent link between detentions and evidence
of terrorist activity, the report reads (p. 41): “There need
not be any evidence of a connection to the terrorist or to the World
Trade Center or Pentagon bombings for a lead to be considered…Any
illegal alien encountered by New York City law enforcement officers
following up a [September 11th investigation] lead - whether
or not the alien turned out to have a connection to the September
11 attacks or any other terrorist activity - was deemed to be
a September 11 detainee.”
While this report is the clearest presentation of information to date,
it is not a substitute for full disclosure of the names of detainees
and their lawyers - information that has been sought under the
Freedom of Information Act.
For more information, read LCHR’s guidelines for evaluating
the report, released on May 20: http://www.lchr.org/us_law/OIG_report.pdf
Read LCHR’s May 20 letter to Attorney General Ashcroft, urging
the report’s release: http://www.lchr.org/us_law/ashcroft_ltr_052003.pdf
A group of advocates and practitioners shared their observations
and concerns regarding the post-September 11 INS detainees in meetings
and correspondence with representatives of the OIG during the course
of its investigation. Those participating include:
American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, American Friends
Service Committee Immigrant Rights Program, American Immigration
Law Foundation, Amnesty International USA, Center for Constitutional
Rights, Center for National Security Studies, Coalition for the
Human Rights of Immigrants, Columbia Human Rights Clinic, Council
on American-Islamic Relations of New Jersey (CAIR-NJ), Council on
American-Islamic Relations of New York (CAIR-NY), Desi’s Rising
Up and Moving (DRUM), Human Rights, Education and Law Project (HELP),
Human Rights Watch, International Human Rights Law Group, Islamic
Circle of North America (ICNA) Relief, Law Offices of Claudia Slovinsky,
Law Offices of Sandra P. Nichols, Law Offices of Sohail Mohammed,
Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, Legal Aid Society of New York,
New York Area Muslim Bar Association, New York Immigration Coalition,
New York State Defenders Association Immigrant Defense Project,
Post September 11 Civil and Human Rights Project of Building Resistance
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