Originally published Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 12:07 AM
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Post-9/11 deportees settle suit
Five immigrant men who were detained in roundups in New York and eventually deported after the Sept. 11 attacks have reached a $1.26 million settlement with the U.S. government.
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Five immigrant men who were detained in roundups in New York and eventually deported after the Sept. 11 attacks have reached a $1.26 million settlement with the U.S. government.
The men were part of a lawsuit against the government over the roundups that put them in federal detention and the abuse they say they suffered. Two other plaintiffs are still part of the lawsuit.
Rachel Meeropol, a lawyer for the Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents the detainees, said she hoped the settlement would serve as a deterrent to prevent similar government practices.
"Our hope is that it will keep the government from rounding up individuals based on religion and ethnicity," she said Tuesday. The men were among more than 170 Arab and Muslim men jailed for immigration-law violations at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. The suit, filed in 2002, claimed that former Attorney General John Ashcroft, prison personnel, FBI supervisors and other officials violated the men's rights by imprisoning them on the basis of their race and religion.
