Immigrant rights group sues ICE over Somali deportation bid

MIAMI – A lawsuit accuses U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement of keeping 92 Somali men and women in inhumane conditions during a failed bid to deport them earlier this month.

The University of Miami School of Law’s Immigration Clinic filed the class-action lawsuit Tuesday. The suit asks a federal judge to prevent ICE from making another attempt at deporting the detainees.

The suit says ICE agents shackled the Somali immigrants for nearly 48 hours during their trip. It also says agents physically attacked some detainees and put others in straitjackets, adding deportees were denied access to a bathroom.

Attorneys for the detainees say they face the danger of being targeted by the anti-American, anti-Western terrorist group Al Shabaab if they return to Somalia.

An email seeking comment from ICE wasn’t immediately returned.