Video shows violent attack by US immigration officials on Kenyan who refused to be fingerprinted
A judge has granted a civil trial for a Kenyan man who alleges immigration agents violently attacked him at a Kansas jail for refusing to be fingerprinted before deportation, an incident captured on jailhouse surveillance video.
You can’t beat up a pretrial detainee because you want his fingerprints – even if you are frustrated or mad with him
The lawsuit by Justine Mochama, an international college student who overstayed his visa, has languished in federal court in Kansas for almost three years.
But on Tuesday, US District Judge Kathryn Vratil refused to throw out his claims that two agents from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement used excessive force during the January 2014 altercation.
“It is a good outcome and hopefully it sends a message to ICE that you can’t beat up a pretrial detainee because you want his fingerprints – even if you are frustrated or mad with him. You don’t have authority to do that,” said Matthew Hoppock, the lawyer who represents Mochama.
Mochama’s lawsuit claiming his constitutional rights were violated initially listed the Department of Homeland Security and various other parties, but the judge decided the case could only go forward against the two ICE agents involved in the altercation.
The US attorney’s office declined comment. ICE spokesman Shawn Neudauer said on Friday the agency does not comment on pending litigation but takes seriously all allegations of employee misconduct. At the time of the incident Mochama had already been in custody for six months waiting to be deported to Kenya, and had filed a petition for release pending deportation. He wanted his attorney to first look at a form ICE before putting his fingerprint on it, as the ICE agents wanted.
The jailhouse video, which Hoppock provided to The Associated Press, shows Mochama calmly standing with his hands in his pockets when the agents pulled at his arms and lifted him into the air. The lawsuit contends one of the agents, Timothy Zwetow, then punched him in the stomach. During the scuffle Mochama sinks to the floor, and his head is slammed into the concrete floor.