Immigrants detained in N.Y. in post-9/11 roundups reach $1.26M settlement with U.S.

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/11/immigrant_detained_in_post-911.html

By The Associated Press

November 04, 2009, 11:55AM

AP

Former Attorney General John Ashcroft. A suit, filed in 2002, claimed that former Ashcroft, prison personnel, FBI supervisors and other officials violated more than 170 detainees' rights by imprisoning them on the basis of their race and religion. Five of those men reached a settlement with the government Monday.NEW YORK — Five immigrant men who were detained in roundups in New York and eventually deported following 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 while they were there. 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. "My clients were really treated as terrorists based on nothing more than their religion and where they came from."

[Posted by Ida Micaily]