Five Muslim-Americans have filed suit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security claiming racial profiling after they were detained and fingerprinted by border agents upon crossing back into the U.S. from a religious conference in Canada. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in New York, names Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff among four defendants, according to the New York Civil Liberties Union, representing the plaintiffs.

Court papers said that on their way back from the Reviving the Islamic Spirit conference in Toronto in December 2004, the plaintiffs were detained for up to six hours with other Muslim-Americans and searched, photographed and fingerprinted. (Reuters, April 20)