Three Muslim Americans have filed a lawsuit in a federal court in Los Angeles against Department of Homeland Security officers. The men, who are from Minnesota, Texas, and Arizona, were traveling home from an international trip when they claim that US border officers targeted them and questioned them about their religious beliefs. The men claim that this line of questioning was a violation of their constitutional rights.
The American Civil Liberties Union is representing the three men and explains that the men underwent unconstitutional questioning pertaining to their faith. The lawsuit details that the men were asked questions about whether or not they were Muslim, what sect they belonged to, how often they prayed, and if they attended a mosque.
The suit accuses the agents of violating the men’s constitutional rights, explaining, “Religious questioning such as this violates the U.S. Constitution. It furthers no valid—let alone compelling—government interest, and it is an affront to the First Amendment freedoms of religion and association. Moreover, because Defendants specifically target Muslim Americans for such questioning, they also violate the First and Fifth Amendments’ protections against unequal treatment on the basis of religion.”
The suit goes on, "Just as border officers may not single out Christian Americans to ask what denomination they are, which church do you attend, and how regularly they pray, signaling out Muslim Americans for similar questions is unconstitutional.”
One plaintiff, Hameem Shah, was returning home from Texas after vacationing in Serbia and Bosnia. When he was coming through the Los Angeles airport, he was pulled over by U.S. border agents for additional screening. Shah explains that he was separated from other travelers and that the agents began to read his personal journal without his consent. They asked him whether or not he had traveled throughout the Middle East and used the line of questioning in order to determine if he was a “safe person.” After the incident, Shah detailed in a statement, "I thought that being an American meant that I and others are free to practice any religion that we choose.”
Another plaintiff, Abdirahman Aden Kariye, who works as an imam at a mosque in Bloomington, Minnesota, detailed that the questioning was not the first of its kind. Between 2017 and 2022, Kariye shares that he was targeted and questioned about his faith on at least five different occasions while traveling back to the states. Kariye contends that his experiences have caused him to stop carrying around religious texts and to stop wearing traditional Muslim attire including a religious cap or Kufi.
As part of the suit, the plaintiffs are asking the court to declare the line of questioning by agents unconstitutional. The suit is also seeking to have U.S. government agencies expunge records collected as a result of the questioning the men endured.
