USF Student’s Arrest Vindictive, Says ACLU
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
April 20, 2009
CONTACT:
Brandon Hensler, Director of Communications, (786) 363-2737 or media@aclufl.org
TAMPA, Fla. – The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida today sent a letter to Janet Napolitano, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), urging the release of Youssef Megahed, a University of South Florida student who was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials on April 6, in what the ACLU is calling a vindictive arrest.
Megahed’s arrest came just three days after he was acquitted by a federal jury of criminal charges relating to possession and transportation of explosive materials. The new arrest, which DHS and ICE have indicated are based on the same charges as in the criminal trial, undermines the jury system and illustrates the lack of due process for those caught in the web of the immigration courts.
“This arrest and the impending deportation charges highlight the flaws in our system,” said Rebecca Harrison Steele, ACLU of Florida West Central Regional Office Director. “A federal jury acquitted Mr. Megahed of all criminal charges. Now the government’s trying to get another bite at the apple in immigration court, where due process takes a lower priority. This latest arrest seems so vindictive. We are urging the federal government to release Mr. Megahed during the proceedings in immigration court and, if the charges in immigration court are indeed based on the very same facts as the criminal charges for which he has been acquitted, to dismiss the removal proceedings.”
Perhaps most telling was the release of statements by several of Megahed’s jurors, who also view ICE’s arrest as vindictive: “It strikes us as fundamentally wrong that the Government has put Mr. Megahed back in jail for suspicion of the same activities that he was acquitted of in the criminal case.” The jurors also stated: “More troublesome is the Government's seeming blatant disregard of the will of its own people.”
The full text of the letter sent today is below, or can be downloaded in PDF here.
April 20, 2009
Honorable Janet Napolitano
Secretary U. S. Department of Homeland Security
Washington, D.C. 20528
RE: Release of Youssef Samir Megahed from ICE Custody
Dear Secretary Napolitano,
We are writing to you regarding Youssef Samir Megahed, a longtime lawful permanent resident (since childhood) and now a University of South Florida undergraduate student who is in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) pending removal proceedings.
On April 3, 2009, Mr. Megahed was acquitted by a federal jury in Tampa, Florida, of criminal charges of possessing and transporting low grade explosives. He had been arrested when police officers pulled over a car in which he was a passenger and found what the government alleged were “low explosives” and what the driver said were homemade firecrackers. Three days after a jury acquitted Mr. Megahed, ICE officers arrested him and reportedly have charged him with deportability based on the same facts underlying the criminal case.
We are deeply concerned about the civil liberties implications of the government’s action in retrying Mr. Megahed in the civil immigration court after a jury acquitted him in the criminal case. If, as reported, Mr. Megahed is slated for removal on the very same basis underlying the criminal charges for which he was acquitted, we urge that he be immediately released and the removal proceedings against Mr. Megahed be terminated.
ICE’s actions have the appearance of ignoring the jury’s verdict and giving the government an unfair opportunity to pursue repeated efforts to deprive an individual of his liberty. It may be the case that federal statutes and the U.S. Constitution do not forbid the government from charging a person with deportability even when it has failed to secure a conviction in a criminal case based on the same conduct. However, by placing Mr. Megahed in removal proceedings after losing its criminal case, the government appears to be unfairly exploiting its substantial procedural advantages in immigration court. Mr. Megahed will have no right to appointed counsel or discovery, and the government is held to a lower standard of proof than in criminal cases. Numerous commentators, including federal appellate judges, have criticized the understaffed immigration courts for their error-prone and unreasoned decisions. See, e.g., Mekhael v. Mukasey, 509 F.3d 326 (7th Cir. 2007).
Moreover, the manner in which ICE officers arrested and detained Mr. Megahed gives rise to an appearance of vindictive government conduct. Mr. Megahed’s trial and acquittal were widely covered in the press and Mr. Megahed publicly announced upon his acquittal that he planned to finish his engineering studies, which were interrupted for 20 months while he faced the criminal prosecution. Although Mr. Megahed was released on bond during his criminal case and appeared for trial as directed, and did not take any steps to change his residence or hide in any way from the government, after his acquittal, ICE agents swooped in to arrest him in a Wal-Mart parking lot, where he was shopping with his father.
We are also concerned that ICE’s actions have given rise to public perceptions of racial and ethnic profiling and create an atmosphere of distrust in minority communities and the Muslim American community in particular. Attorney General Eric Holder has pledged to end the “scourge of racial profiling of African-Americans, Muslims and other Americans that alienates citizens from their own communities.” We call upon the federal government, including ICE, to live up to that pledge.
Ultimately, the people’s trust in government rests not only on whether the government’s actions are permitted under law but also on whether the government exercises that power in a fair and transparent way. ICE’s actions undermine that social contract by treating the jury verdict as if it were a nullity – notwithstanding the announcement by the U.S. Attorney’s Office that it would respect the jury verdict.
The decision to arrest Megahed, particularly in such a publicly humiliating manner, has caused local media and other community voices, including the jurors from his criminal case, to view the government as prejudiced and vindictive. Four jurors took the unusual step of issuing a statement, published in the St. Petersburg Times, saying that, “It strikes us as fundamentally wrong that the Government has put Mr. Megahed back in jail for suspicion of the same activities that he was acquitted of in the criminal case.” The jurors also stated: “More troublesome is the Government's seeming blatant disregard of the will of its own people.”
We urge you to release Mr. Megahed and to terminate the removal proceedings against him, unless it can be shown that there is a new factual basis supporting any charges of deportability. At the very least, DHS/ICE should not contest Mr. Megahed's release while these proceedings are pending.
Sincerely,
Howard L. Simon Rebecca Harrison Steele
Executive Director West Central Regional Director
cc: Honorable Eric H. Holder, Attorney General of the United States
About the ACLU of Florida
The ACLU of Florida is freedom's watchdog, working daily in the courts, legislatures and communities to defend individual rights and personal freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. For additional information, visit our web site at: www.aclufl.org.
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