Doris Meissner.(the Justice Department issues a report on the treatment of illegal immigrant after September 11, 2001)(Interview)

Last week the U.S. Justice Department's Inspector General issued a long-awaited report on the government's treatment of hundreds of illegal immigrants detained in the wake of September 11. Among its findings: the government failed to inform many detainees of the charges against them, denied them bond, prevented many from seeking legal representation and tolerated "a pattern of physical and verbal abuse" by corrections officers at a center in Brooklyn. Out of the 762 detainees, not one was indicted on terrorism charges. NEWSWEEK's Malcolm Beith spoke with Doris Meissner, commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service under President Bill Clinton and now a senior fellow at Washington's Migration Policy Institute, about the scandal. Excerpts:

What are your thoughts on the report?

I think it really corroborates what a lot of outside observers have been talking about, which is that in the name of responding to the terrorist attacks, there have been substantial violations of people's liberties, and the immigration law has been used as a very blunt instrument.

What could--or should--the government have done differently?

[After the September 11 attacks] it's understandable that there would have been-- at the outset--this almost panicky reaction on the part of government officials to just start arresting people. But it's also reasonable to say that after the first couple of weeks, when it became clear that there were not going to be a series of repeat attacks im- mediately, somebody needed to take a deep breath and sit down and say, "Wait a minute, what are we doing here? And what is going to be the best way to isolate who might have been involved in these attacks and file charges against them?" That didn't happen.

Last week Attorney General John Ashcroft defended his department's actions and asked Congress for even broader powers, including tougher sentences and the right to hold suspected terrorists without bond.

I cannot imagine that Congress would grant that right. [But] the danger in this kind of discussion is to be dismissive. The government does have the responsibility to do certain things differently, and as a public we are in a different place. But you have to abide by the due- process rules of our system: there must be probable cause, there must be an investigation of individual law-breaking and ultimately charges have to be filed. Our legal system focuses on punishment of criminal ...