Asylum-seekers say they were drugged

By Anna Gorman and Greg Krikorian
From the LA Times [HERE]

 U.S. immigration officials in Los Angeles sedated two foreign nationals against their will during failed attempts to deport them, 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 Los Angeles 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 is representing the two men. "It's blatantly illegal. You cannot inject people with psychotropic drugs if they are not mentally ill."

 The ACLU, with the assistance of the law firm Munger, Tolles and Olson, is investigating the incidents, which first were reported in the Los Angeles Daily Journal.

 Both Soeoth and Diouf have been released. Their cases are pending at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

 Immigration and Customs Enforcement declined to comment on the cases, but a U.S. Public Health Services official said authorities do sedate immigrants during deportation if they have a psychiatric disorder, are severely agitated during a flight or present a danger to themselves or others.

 Dr. Tim Shack, medical director for the Division of Immigration Health Services, said medical escorts, which include nurses and doctors, sedate detainees against their will if they fail to respond to verbal counseling or physical restraints and present an "imminent risk of danger."

 In some cases, the agency will get a court order to administer medication. Medications commonly used are lorazepam, haloperidol, olanzapine and benztropine.

 Soeoth, a Chinese Christian, fled Indonesia in 1999 to escape religious persecution. He applied for asylum but lost the case. He later appealed.

 On Dec. 7, 2004, Soeoth said, immigration agents told him he was going to be deported. They did not give him a chance to call his attorney or his wife, he said.

 An agent asked him how he felt and if he wanted medication. Soeoth said he told them that he felt OK and that he didn't want any drugs. But a few hours later, Soeoth said, several agents came into the room where he was held and told him that they had to medicate him. Soeoth said the agents grabbed his arms and legs, pushed him onto a bench, pulled down his pants and injected him in the buttock.

 Medical files indicate Soeoth may have threatened to kill himself, but he said that was not true.

 Diouf came into the country from Senegal on a student visa in 1996 but overstayed because he began dating an American citizen whom he later married. His deportation was ordered, but he is appealing.

 The night before his scheduled flight, Diouf said agents told him he was going to be deported. He said he told officers that he had a stay of deportation. But the next morning, Diouf said, agents told him he was being sent to his native country. A medical escort -- with a syringe in his pocket -- told him that they would be on a commercial plane and could not afford to have any problems, he said. Another agent offered to give him pills, he said.

 Once on the plane, Diouf, who was handcuffed, said he told a flight attendant in French that he wanted to speak to the captain so he could tell him about the stay. The medical escort told him he wasn't following orders and took out the syringe and a bottle of water. Diouf said he began yelling as the agents wrestled him to the ground and injected him.

 A note in the medical file said that he was not following orders and that he was "taken to the ground on board the aircraft after being given medication."

 Diouf said the captain ordered them all off the plane.

 "That was a pretty humiliating ordeal," he said. "I don't think I was making trouble. I just wanted to speak to the captain."