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Terrorist
hoax
Who is fomenting
fear and terror?
Calif. Muslims Detained
in Crowded, Cold Centers
By Jill Serjeant,
Dec 19, 2002, Reuters
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Hundreds
of Muslim men and boys are being subjected to strip searches
in freezing, standing room only detention centers in southern
California after being arrested for routine visa irregularities,
immigration lawyers said on Thursday.
They estimated that between
1,000 and 2,500 males, some as young as 16, were spending their
fourth day locked up in what they called inhumane conditions
after voluntarily presenting themselves at immigration offices
to register under new anti-terrorism rules.
"The situation in the
detention centers is absolutely horrifying. In one center, they
were ordered to strip down and given a strip search. They were
only given a prison jumpsuit, without any underwear, T-shirts,
socks or shoes. They were not given blankets. They are freezing,"
Iranian-American lawyer Sohelia Jonoubi told Reuters.
Justice Department officials
in Washington, breaking an almost week-long silence on the arrests,
said 227 people had been detained in California for overstaying
their visas under a post-Sept. 11 program that requires men over
16, without permanent residence status, from 20 Arab or Muslim
countries to register with authorities.
But the official figures differed
widely from anecdotal evidence from families in the Los Angeles
area who reported that scores of husbands, brothers and fathers
had spent most of this week locked up and treated like criminals.
"These people are being
held in inhumane conditions...We don't know how many. We have
estimated anywhere between 1,000 to 2,500 detained in southern
California. The INS in Los Angeles is overworked, overwhelmed
and doing everything they can (but) these people were not prepared
to handle it," Iranian-American Lawyers Association spokesman
Kayhan Shakib told Reuters.
A TRAP?
Most of those detained were
Iranians living in Los Angeles County and neighboring Orange
County, which in the past 20 years have become home to some 600,000
Iranian exiles.
Lawyers battling to get the
men released on bail said many were law-abiding immigrants who
were in the process of getting U.S. green cards under a lengthy
and complex INS procedure.
"These people came to
the INS centers voluntarily. They are not flight risks. They
were led to believe it was routine registration and now this
is the biggest trap I have ever seen," Jonoubi said.
Some 3,000 people staged a
peaceful protest in Los Angeles on Wednesday as hundreds more
waited for hours to get their relatives released on bail from
overwhelmed INS officials. Some protesters carried banners reading:
"What's Next? Concentration camps?"
Community lawyers have been
refused access to the detainees who they say are being shuttled
round various detention centers in prison buses, shackled and
in handcuffs, as the system creaks under the strain.
Families, allowed telephone
access to their relatives, reported that the men were forced
to sleep standing up, or on concrete floors with no blankets,
and some had been hosed down with cold water. Drinking water
is said to be scarce and in some cases, detainees must use toilets
without doors or walls.
The relatives said that some
detainees have been told they will be deported without seeing
their relatives again. Others are trying to get out on bail pending
a hearing before an immigration judge which could take days or
weeks.
BASIC NEEDS
INS spokesman Francisco Arcaute
said he was confident the INS could deal with the situation,
adding; "They have access to telephones, they have access
to restrooms, they are given snacks. We understand there has
been a bit of crowding, but my understanding is that we are meeting
basic needs."
The southern California chapter
of the ACLU said the detentions were "reminiscent of what
happened in the past with Japanese-Americans" during World
War II.
Shakib told Reuters that after
talks with the INS, officials had promised to try to process
the detainees more speedily and get more of them out on bail.
He said only 20 or 30 had been
bailed out as of Wednesday. The Justice Department insisted about
100 people were still being held.
Activists said they expected
more demonstrations in coming days. "The Iranian community
is not going to sit and not respond to this outrage," said
Jonoubi, a Los Angeles resident for 15 years and now a U.S. citizen.
"I cannot believe that
I lived to see the day that such human rights violations occur
in the United States of America in the 21st century."
Mohamed
Arkat | Torture
techniques used in Afghanistan | Arar_Maher
| Celebrities speak out | USA_security_measures
| Jaggi Singh | Terrorist
hoax |
Free
speech
| Eminem | Twisted | Hallowe'en story | Don Smith video case | Ivan Cohen | Search
and seizure
| Bill
C-36
| Expanded
CSIS powers
| Encroachments
on U.S. Fourth Amendment | Zundelsite |
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of Truth, It will burst out its rib-cage. Somali proverb
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Index to Saskatoon Police stories
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for the 1998-2002 period.
Inquiry into the malicious prosecution of David
Milgaard untanling 36 years of Saskatchewan police and Crown
misconduct: : Opening day 1 | 2
| 3 | 4
| 5 | 6
| 7 |
- Stephen Williams:
Canadian writer subject to Stasi-like treatment by Canadian police
- Terry
Arnold: : Snitch a
suicide?
- RCMP
scenario stings: Brian
Hutchinson starts digging
- Gary
wells: Faulty eye-witness
testimony
- Tulia,
Texas
- Gilmer,
Texas
- Willie
Upshaw
- Wrongfully
convicted in Canada
- Foster
Parent false accusations
- Martensville
- Don
Smith obscenity trial: an obscene conviction
- James
Lockyer
- Hurricane
Carter
- Johnny Cochran speaks up for
Bill Sampson
- Vopnis
- Abdulai
Mohamed
- Nfld Defamation story:
- Wanda
Young
- Racism
in the Federal Civil Service
The Terrible Story behind the Atif Rafay and
Sebastian Burns convictions
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