Lawyers for detained refugee in Mass. file lawsuit (Worcester Telegram & Gazette)

Lawyers for detained refugee in Mass. file lawsuit

The Associated Press
Friday, April 30, 2010

BOSTON — The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts is seeking the release a 27-year-old man from Sri Lanka who was granted asylum in the United States more than a year ago, but continues to be detained by U.S. immigration authorities.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has violated Baskaran Balasundaram's civil rights and U.S. immigration law by letting him languish in jail while the agency appeals his asylum case, his attorneys said in a lawsuit filed this week in federal court in Boston. The department believes he provided material support to terrorists while being held captive by them.

Balasundaram's attorneys said the farmer from Sri Lanka was captured at gunpoint and taken to a Tamil Tiger training camp and later escaped, only to be tortured by the Sri Lankan government, who demanded information about the Tigers.

"If you look at the facts of this case, there's just no way this guy was a terrorist," said Laura Rotolo, staff attorney for the ACLU of Massachusetts. "The government has never alleged that he was part of the Tamil Tigers or that he agrees with their views. They just say, 'Look, the law has to be read very strictly. You can't get asylum because you were in that training camp.'"

Named in the lawsuit are Bruce Chadbourne, director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Office of Detention and Removal in Boston, and Suffolk County Sheriff Andrea Cabral.

A spokesman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the agency couldn't comment on matters concerning national security.

Cabral's office referred calls to federal authorities.

The Tamil Tigers have been designated as a terrorist organization in the U.S., and they are responsible for major human rights abuses around the world, according to federal officials.