 AGENT FILES DISCRIMINATION LAWSUIT AGAINST INS
An agent in the INS’s office in Newark, New Jersey has filed a lawsuit against the agency, claiming that he was the victim of harassment and ethnic discrimination because of his Palestinian heritage. Ziad Jiries, who has worked for the INS for five years, says that co-workers repeatedly made racial slurs against him, including accusing him of involvement in the crash of TWA flight 800. He also says he was unfairly denied promotions.
According to the lawsuit, a number of the discriminatory comments centered on the assumption that Jiries was a Muslim. In fact, he is a Christian, as are a number of people of Arab ethnicity.
Jiries says he was made to work in a hostile environment and that co-workers repeatedly retaliated against him. Perhaps the most serious allegation is that Jiries was denied a position on the FBI-INS Joint Terrorism Task Force, despite his specialized training in the field and his fluencny in Arabic.
This is the second time Jiries has sued the INS. Last December, one of his supervisors was acquitted of charges that he assaulted Jiries. Attorneys for the supervisor had argued that there was not assault, and that Jiries was angry at being passed over for a promotion. The current suit claims that most of the racial slurs were made by this supervisor, and asks for either his transfer or Jiries transfer.
The INS has declined to comment on the pending lawsuit.
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