ACLU Sues Immigration Authorities To End Practice Of Injecting Deportees With Anti-Psychotic Drugs

October 12, 2007 3:59 p.m. EST

Los Angeles, CA (AHN) - Former detainees of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have filed a lawsuit alleging the agency forcibly injected them with psychotropic drugs as they deported them.

Two plaintiffs in a class action suit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union say that they were injected against their will.

Indonesian immigrant Raymond Soeoth says he was in a holding cell waiting to be deported when four officers came into his holding cell, forcibly removed his pants and pinned him down while they injected him with anti-psychotic drugs against his will and over his protests.

Soeoth, who is an assistant pastor and cabdriver, has no history of psychological problems. After the injection, he was extremely dizzy and suffered from paranoia and sleeplessness for the two days before the medication wore off, he told the Associated Press.

One of the drugs that ICE is accused of using on detainees is a powerful anti-psychotic drug that is not approved for use without a physician seeing a patient in person to prescribe it first. The drug Haldol, which is used to treat schizophrenia or other mental illnesses, was used on some detainees.

In its lawsuit, the ACLU seeks unspecified damages and an end to injecting detainees with anti-psychotic drugs.

A physician asked to review the medical records said that the government's actions would be the subject of a malpractice suit if done in the civilian world, CNN reports.

Dr. Paul Appelbaum, a professor of psychiatry, law and ethics at Columbia University, reviewed the medical records of two immigrants, Raymond Soeoth of Indonesia and Amadou Diouf of Senegal in West Africa.

"I'm really shocked to find out that the government has been using physicians and using potent medications in this way," Appelbaum told CNN news. He also also serves as a member of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law."

ACLU attorney Ahilan Arulanantham told CNN that it giving anti-psychotic drugs to someone who is not mentally is "would be torture." He expressed bafflement as to why the U.S. government would inject detainees being deported with such drugs.