Immigration officials allegedly drugged deportees (LAT)

Source: Los Angeles Times

Immigration officials allegedly drugged deportees
An ACLU lawyer condemns the incidents in L.A. as 'horrifying.'
Both men remain in the U.S. while appealing their cases.

By Anna Gorman and Greg Krikorian, Times Staff Writers
May 9, 2007

U.S. immigration officials sedated two foreign nationals against their
will during failed attempts to deport them in Los Angeles, the men and
their attorneys said Tuesday.

Indonesian immigrant Raymond Soeoth, 38, who was appealing his case
for political asylum, was sedated with antipsychotic drugs in December
2004 at a San Pedro detention facility; Senegal immigrant Amadou Diouf,
31, also pursuing an appeal for permanent legal status, was medicated in
February 2006 while on a commercial plane at Los Angeles International
Airport, according to both men and the medical files they said they
obtained from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

"It's horrifying," said American Civil Liberties Union attorney Ahilan
Arulanantham, who represents the two. "It's blatantly illegal. You
cannot inject people with psychotropic drugs if they are not mentally
ill."

The ACLU, with assistance from the law firm of Munger, Tolles and
Olson, is investigating the incidents, which were first reported in the
Los Angeles Daily Journal. Arulanantham said neither of his clients has
been treated for mental illness.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-deport9may09,1,6834180.story

Damn them. Every time I think we have reached the bottom of the barrel with criminal and unethical activity, they always surprise me.

:cry: