Arab Americans File Class Action Lawsuit Over Discriminatory Re-Entry Procedures

June 20, 2006

Source: The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/20/us/20lawsuit.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

On June 20, 2006 The New York Times reported, "A group of Muslim and Arab-Americans, frustrated by what they say is the climate of suspicion and fear that dogs their re-entry into the United States from trips abroad, sued the Department of Homeland Security and the F.B.I. yesterday, demanding that the courts protect their civil rights. The seven main plaintiffs in the class action suit assert that both the United States Congress and the federal government are ignoring the plight of innocent Americans harassed repeatedly because of problems with the terrorist watch list. The lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Chicago by the American Civil Liberties Union, contends that the courts alone can ensure that antiterrorism policies do not repeatedly subject ordinary Americans to detention, questioning, fingerprinting and the like."