BLACKS CLAIM RACISM AT THE BORDER

Discrimination Alleged In Customs Searches

Black Women Say They Were Singled Out Unfairly

CHICAGO (CNN) -- A group of black women have filed a class-action lawsuit
against the U.S. Customs Service alleging that they were unfairly targeted
for searches at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.

The lawsuit alleges that as many as 52 black women were subjected to
pat-downs and intrusive searches at the airport when they returned from
trips.

The suit seeks to change the Customs Service's non-routine search policy

and seeks actual and punitive damages. Ed Fox, the attorney who filed the
suit, said none of the searches turned up anything illegal.

"The Customs agents are racially discriminating against blacks and
targeting them for being strip-searched. And coupled with that, they are
doing body searches, body cavity searches, pat-down strip searches without
the appropriate legal cause that they need to undertake a search like
that," he said.

Jacqueline Jones was returning from Germany when Customs agents pulled her
aside, checked her bags and ordered a strip search. She said she was taken
to a room that looked like a "South American torture chamber."

"I was so afraid I didn't know what they were going to do," she said. "So I
go there, I'm standing against the wall, all of a sudden I've got my legs
spread, the woman searches me. This is a full body type search -- breast
all the way down -- including putting her hand between my legs."

Gwendolyn Richards was returning from Jamaica when Customs officials took
her to a hospital in handcuffs.

"I was on the table with my legs in the stirrups, and the doctor checked me
out and she basically told me that I was clean," she said.

Customs officials acknowledge that the searches were conducted but deny
that race has anything to do with who they choose to search.

"We do have the legal right to do what we do," said Irene Prince of the
Customs Service. "The good guys sometimes get caught up with the bad guys.
And I wish that people would understand that we're here trying to do a job."

That is little comfort for Richards.

"You can never give me enough to compensate for what I feel in here," she
said, pointing to her chest.