By Ruben Navarrette Jr.
THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS

    DALLAS -- From my e-mail, I gather that many of my correspondents believe that illegal immigrants -- by virtue of being illegal -- have no rights, no protections, and no cause to complain when they are mistreated. And that this is true under the best of circumstances. When there is the possibility that the immigrants can be linked to terrorism -- or when they at least come from countries known to produce terrorists -- well, all bets are off.
    If this sounds OK with you, there could be a career waiting for you at the Justice Department. Over there, the motto seems to be: "Just do it. Justify it later. And if later comes, and what you did can't be justified, deny, deny, deny.''
    You needn't go that far. In this -- law enforcement's carte blanche era -- whatever you do and whoever suffers, you can simply say that terrorism made you do it, and that extreme times call for extreme measures. Or you can contend that some trampled civil liberties are a small price for preventing terrorist attacks -- especially if the liberties underfoot belong to someone else.
    And to think attorneys are -- as officers of the court -- sworn to preserve the integrity of the system. These days, integrity is overrated. Innovation is just as good.
    "The threat presented by terrorists who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks required a different kind of law enforcement approach,'' Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson told investigators for Inspector General Glenn Fine, who, as the Justice Department's watchdog, launched a probe into the treatment of detainees -- most of them of Arab or Central Asian descent -- after reports that prisoners were being abused.
    The result was a blistering 198-page report released by Fine's office this week. It offers the clearest picture yet of the 762 detainees rounded up after the attacks, of how long they were held, and how they were treated. The report -- based on internal government documents, examinations of two detention facilities and more than 100 interviews with detainees and U.S. officials -- found "significant problems in the way the Sept. 11 detainees were treated.''
    Apparently, this is what Thompson meant by a "different kind'' of law enforcement: The report notes detainees being slammed against walls and verbally abused by guards, being denied for weeks the right to make a phone call or have access to a lawyer, and prisoners being housed in cells that were illuminated around the clock, shackled in handcuffs and leg irons. The report cites "a pattern of physical and verbal abuse,'' a flouting of rules and customs that drive criminal proceedings, and a failure by the FBI to sort terrorist suspects from individuals who authorities stumbled on to by chance.
    Detainees were held in custody for an average of 80 days under a new "hold until cleared'' policy where the FBI -- and not the Immigration and Naturalization Service -- was given the final say about who was released. In other words, the prisoners were presumed guilty until proven innocent.
    Despite the claim by Attorney General John Ashcroft in a Sept. 17, 2001, memo that the detainees were "persons who participate in, or lend support to, terrorist activities,'' not one of them was charged with a terrorism-related crime.
    Most were charged with violating immigration laws and many were deported. Yes, these were illegal immigrants. But that doesn't justify a thing. This is not how we treat the hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants caught entering the United States each year. We detect, apprehend and deport. We don't abuse, humiliate and degrade. Not in this country.
    This report is chilling, and it explains why the Justice Department went to court to prevent news organizations from learning anything about the detainees. Now that the cat is out of the bag, the official response can be described as deplorable. Justice Department spokeswoman Barbara Comstock offered no apologies. And Thompson said it was "unfair'' to criticize the conduct of his staff during this difficult period. It is good to know these folks are still familiar with a concept like fairness.
    There will, of course, be lawsuits alleging civil rights violations. There should also be congressional hearings into the report's findings and more probing. And, when it is all done, there should be firings and resignations.
    Ashcroft should be the first to step down. He took an oath to defend the Constitution, and instead he defiled it.
    Say what you will about how this was a difficult time, and how officials were under pressure, and how it was all the fault of terrorists anyway. None of that changes how this episode will be written up in history books -- as one of our darkest hours.