DoJ Investigation Faults Immigrant Round-Ups

A long-awaited report from the Justice Department inspector general concludes that federal authorities detained dozens of immigrants for unusually long periods of time after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to Justice officials and sources familiar with the report.

The report by Inspector General Glenn A. Fine, scheduled for release Monday, found that some foreign nationals with no connection to terrorism were held for months because of delays in routing information between the immigration service and the FBI, according to Justice and FBI officials.

The report found that 54 of the 762 detainees were held for more than three months, despite objections from officials in the former Immigration and Naturalization Service that they should be released with "reasonable dispatch," one Justice official said.

At least 130 detainees did not acquire counsel during their proceedings, although all were afforded the right to ask for lawyers, the Justice official said.

Although the findings provide a glimpse of the impending report on Sept. 11 detainees, it was impossible to determine yesterday what other findings it might contain. Neither the Justice Department nor the inspector general's office would provide any part of the report itself.

"We would caution people not to draw conclusions based on a report that has yet to be released," said Paul Martin, a spokesman for Fine.

The Justice Department and Attorney General John D. Ashcroft have come under steady criticism since the Sept. 11 attacks from civil liberties groups, Arab American organizations and some lawmakers for an aggressive dragnet that ensnared hundreds of immigrants, mostly from Muslim countries.

Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said yesterday that "the inspector general report shows that the war on terror quickly turned into a war on immigrants."

"Government officials were implementing policies targeting immigrants who have no connection to the terrorist attacks, and their policies did not make the country any safer," Romero said.

But Justice and FBI officials said they believe the report shows they acted within the law in detaining immigrants after Sept. 11. A Justice official said the department has already implemented two of Fine's recommendations and is reviewing the overall system for handling "special interest" detainees.