Statement of U.S. Senator Russ Feingold on the Inspector General's Report on the Treatment of September 11th Detainees

There is no question that the men and women of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Immigration and Naturalization Service, and other components of the U.S. Department of Justice have worked tirelessly since September 11th to find the perpetrators, to bring them to justice, and to prevent another terrorist attack on U.S. soil. They have had some notable successes for which we all should be grateful.

I have long expressed the view that the Constitution should guide our nation's response to the September 11th attacks, and I have feared that, in its effort to find suspected terrorists, the Justice Department may have violated constitutional principles of fairness and justice. Now, the Justice Department's own internal watchdog concludes that the Department went too far.

The Attorney General has said that allegations of civil rights violations should not be made lightly or without specificity or facts. Well, the Department's own investigator, the Inspector General, has now made serious, specific, and comprehensive findings about the Department's failure to protect the due process, access to counsel, and other rights of individuals detained on immigration violations.

I urge the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security, the department that now oversees immigration enforcement, to heed the recommendations of this report and take concrete steps to ensure that the civil rights of individuals detained, now or in the future, are not violated. As we protect Americans from terrorism, we must also protect the constitutional freedoms that are the foundation of our democracy.