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 [1] 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 [2] 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 [3], April 20)
