Turkmen v. Ashcroft

Synopsis

Turkmen v. Ashcroft is a class action civil rights lawsuit filed on behalf of a class of Muslim, South Asian, and Arab non-citizens who were swept up by the INS and FBI in a racial profiling dragnet following 9/11.

Status

On Thursday, February 14, CCR attorney Rachel Meeropol argued the appeal before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

Description

Turkmen v. Ashcroft is a lawsuit brought against then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, FBI Director Robert Mueller, former INS Commissioner James Ziglar, and employees of the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, New York.

The suit charges that on the pretext of minor immigration violations, the Immigration and Naturalization Service unlawfully held the plaintiffs – all men from Arab or South Asian countries – in detention for the months that the FBI took to clear them of links to terrorism, long after the time their immigration cases were completed. The complaint alleges that Defendants violated the detainees' rights under the First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments and under international human rights law. The case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

The seven named plaintiffs include Muslims from Pakistan, Egypt, and Turkey, as well as a Hindu man born in India. Despite the fact that the government has never charged any of the plaintiffs with connections to terrorism, the INS kept them in detention for up to nine months. Instead of being presumed innocent until proven guilty, they and hundreds of other post-9/11 detainees were presumed guilty of terrorism until proven innocent to the satisfaction of law enforcement authorities.

The suit further charges that some of these detainees were improperly assigned to the Administrative Maximum Special Housing Unit (ADMAX SHU); kept in solitary confinement with the lights on all day; placed under a communications blackout so that they could not seek the assistance of their attorneys, families, and friends; subjected to physical and verbal abuse; forced to endure inhumane conditions of confinement; and obstructed in their efforts to practice their religion.

The plaintiffs seek compensatory and punitive damages.

 

Timeline

In April 2002, Turkmen v. Ashcroft was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

In August of 2002 the high-level defendants, Ashcroft, Mueller and Zigler, moved to dismiss the case on qualified immunity grounds. Plaintiffs filed briefs in opposition to motion.

In December of 2002 Bill Goodman, then-legal director of CCR, argued the motion before the Honorable Judge Gleeson.

In April 2003, the first DOJ Office of the Inspector General (OIG) report was released, describing the government's secret round up of more than 700 Muslim and Arab non-citizens after 9/11 on the pretext of immigration violations. It described the government’s application of a blanket policy of denying them release on bond, even when the government lacked evidence that they posed a danger or a flight risk, and of the blanket policy of continuing to hold them for criminal investigatory purposes even after they could have been deported.

On June 18, 2003, CCR filed the second amended complaint. This complaint added several new claims based on information made available through the OIG report. Defendants filed a supplemental motion to dismiss the new claims, and a second round of briefing occurred.

In December 2003, a second OIG report was released, documenting in graphic detail the physical and verbal abuse that INS detainees held at the MDC suffered at the hands of MDC officials and the inhuman conditions in which they were confined.

On September 13, 2004, CCR filed the third amended complaint, which named as defendants 28 MDC employees, included wardens, lieutenants, correctional officers, and counselors, added a eighth plaintiff, and several Federal Tort Claims Act claims against the United States. Defendants once again moved to dismiss the new claims, and the parties engaged in a third round of briefing.

In October of 2004, Judge Gleeson allowed Plaintiffs to begin discovery with respect to Plaintiffs conditions of confinement and excessive force claims. Document discovery began shortly thereafter.

In early 2006, four of the plaintiffs in the Turkmen case were paroled into the United States to have their depositions taken. Non-citizens barred from re-entering the United States have never before been allowed to enter our country for the purpose of pursing a civil case. The United States would only allow their return on the condition that the plaintiffs remained in the custody of the United States Marshall Service for the entirety of their stay. They were not permitted to leave their hotel, nor contact their family or friends at home or in the United States. The plaintiffs accepted these onerous conditions in order to better present their testimony.

In spring of 2006, in response to revelations about the Bush administration's warrantless domestic spying program, CCR demanded to know whether communications between CCR and the Turkmen plaintiffs were being intercepted and revealed to government attorneys or defendants. The United States government vigorously fought to avoid stating whether or not it had access to surveillance of CCR attorneys in the case.

On May 30, 2006, Magistrate Judge Gold ordered all defendants, witnesses, and government attorneys involved in the case to admit or deny whether they are "aware of any monitoring or surveillance of communications" between CCR attorneys and their clients. The United States objected to Magistrate Judge Gold’s order before the District Court.

On June 14, 2006, Judge John Gleeson in the Eastern District of New York decided defendants' motion to dismiss, originally filed in August of 2002. Judge Gleeson dismissed the claims challenging plantiffs’ prolonged detention but allowed the conditions of confinement and racial & religious discrimination claims to proceed. CCR sought and received permission from the court to appeal the dismissal immediately.

On October 3, 2006 District Court Judge John Gleeson upheld Judge Gold’s order regarding surveillance, and gave the United States a limited period of time to provide the court with an in camera assurance that no intercepted communications were being used in the case.

In April of 2007, the Department of Justice announced criminal indictments against eleven current and former MDC employees, including three of the Turkmen defendants. The defendants are charged with physical attacks against MDC prisoners (not the 9-11 detainees) occurring between 2002 and 2006. Several defendants pled guilty and other went to trial.  Ten of the eleven defendants were ultimately convicted.

In the spring of 2007, the parties filed a cross appeal of Judge Gleeson’s decision on the motion to dismiss before the second circuit.

On February 14, 2008, CCR attorney Rachel Meeropol argued the appeal before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. We are currently awaiting the decision.

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