Somali illegals questioned in Texas detention facility

Houston Chronicle:

Attorneys for 10 Somali men held in an immigration detention center in South Texas allege that federal immigration officials segregated and interrogated their clients after they left a Muslim prayer service, saying they were subject to "discriminatory and unethical" questioning.

Lawyers for the asylum seekers said the men — detained at the South Texas Detention Complex in Pearsall — were targeted because they were Muslim and from Somalia. The lawyers contend that their clients were segregated into a separate dormitory for two to three days after they left a Dec. 8 prayer service at the detention facility celebrating the Muslim holiday, Eid.

The Somalis were not given the opportunity to contact their lawyers, according to a letter the attorneys sent Monday to several federal agencies including the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.

Carl Rusnok, a spokesman with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said the agency is researching the allegations in the letter, which was forwarded to ICE's public affairs office Tuesday by a Houston Chronicle reporter. Rusnok declined to answer a reporter's questions Wednesday.

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The men were asked questions such as whether they participated in radical groups, had military training, had studied computers and had "ever violated anyone," according to the letter. They were also asked, "What does it mean to be a Muslim?" their lawyers said.

The questioning reportedly led one client to break down in tears, said Jonathan Ryan, executive director of San Antonio's Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, which is representing the men along with an Austin-based organization, American Gateways.

"They were scared," he said. "They were segregated, and they thought they had lost their cases and were going to be deported."

Attorneys for the Somalis allege the men were questioned by six agents — two with ICE and four with U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Ryan said he and Edna Yang, another attorney representing the men, were still trying to figure out what would prompt the federal government to single out the Somali men.

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Oh come on, these attorneys cannot be that naive.

Somalia is home to a radical Islamist Courts movement affiliated with al Qaeda. The questions they were asked seem reasonable and prudent to me. The US recently prosecuted an American citizen who went to Somalia to fight with the radical Islamic religious bigots. Somali immigrants have demonstrated some weird behavior lately so there is reason to question them differently than you would your typical Mexican job seeker.