ACLU sues Sheriff Baca over bail refusals

The American Civil Liberties Union is suing Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca on behalf of people who say they were denied bail for minor offenses after being flagged by immigration authorities.

British filmmaker Duncan Roy, who says he spent nearly three months in L.A. County jails without a chance to post bail, is one of the five plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which will be filed today in U.S. District Court.

Roy was arrested Nov. 15 in Malibu on an extortion charge. He was in the country legally but was identified as a suspected illegal immigrant through a federal program called Secure Communities, which sends the fingerprints of all arrestees through an immigration database.

Alain Martinez-Perez, another plaintiff in the ACLU lawsuit, was arrested in December following a domestic dispute-------------He spent several days behind bars while his cousin's efforts to post bail were rejected because he was under an immigration hold, the lawsuit says.

"People should not be abused in this way," Martinez-Perez, a 37-year-old immigrant from Mexico, said in an interview. "The law should reflect the need to protect all people. We come to America to make better lives, not to be abused and treated differently from others."

Alain Martinez-Perez, come to America for better life he gets arrested for domestic dispute, and he maintains "The law should reflect the need to protect all people even illegals who get arrested-adding my own words -The law should reflect the need to protect us when we are areested for crimes like domestic dispute,the laws should ignore federal detainers & be allowing illegals to make bail and skip town after all We come to America to make better lives. Illegals are filing lawsuits for the laws that must NOT apply to them.They are soooooooo special !

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