In 2004, California sent a smaller percentage of its high-school students to four-year colleges than any state other than Mississippi. At the ACLU/SC's urging, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has announced a $100-million plan to expand college-prep classes and toughen career-technical education for the state's students.

The request came in the May budget revision and follows months of discussions among the governor's staff, legislators and ACLU representatives that led to the announced proposal.

Close to 1 million students each year do not qualify for admission to college or other career paths because they lack access to required courses taught by qualified teachers. Nearly two-thirds of these students are Latino and African American.

The governor's proposal will increase the number of college preparatory and career-technical courses, hire qualified teachers, and improve reporting and accountability measures.

State law mandates equal opportunity for the state's students regardless of race or income, and the ACLU/SC supports that fundamental right through our litigation and public education. The 2004 settlement of the Williams v. California lawsuit provided $1 billion to address school conditions that hamper learning, raise the level of teaching, and provide textbooks at low-performing high schools. Click here to learn more about the Williams v. California settlement.

"We agreed with the Governor that Williams was only a first step for California's students," said Catherine Lhamon, ACLU/SC Racial Justice Director. "Bridging the college and career gap by funding rigorous courses for kids who want them is critical for California's future."

The ACLU/SC has learned that the U.S. government forcibly sedates immigrants to make it easier to deport them. Raymond Soeoth and Amadou Diouf described how medical staff working for the Department of Homeland Security injected them with powerful drugs against their will.

"These druggings were medically unnecessary, immoral, and dangerous," said ACLU/SC staff attorney Ahilan Arulanantham, who represents Soeoth and Diouf. "Officers sedated these perfectly sane men, apparently just to silence them."

The ACLU/SC is aggressively investigating the druggings. Neither man was deported, and both were recently released from a federal facility after more than two years, thanks to ACLU/SC actions. A judge found that their lengthy detention violated federal rules.

The druggings were first reported in the Daily Journal, a legal newspaper, and later in the Los Angeles Times.

Pictured: Raymond Soeoth, an asylum-seeker from Indonesia who was forcibly sedated by U.S. immigration officials, with his wife, Cindy.

LOS ANGELES - The ACLU of Southern California has learned that two immigrants were forcibly sedated by the U.S. government. Raymond Soeoth and Amadou Diouf, clients in an earlier ACLU/SC lawsuit, revealed that they had each been drugged involuntarily during attempts to deport them. The ACLU/SC is aggressively investigating the practice with the pro-bono assistance of the law firm Munger, Tolles, and Olson LLP.

Diouf was under court protection from deportation when officers put him on an airplane for return to his native Senegal. When he attempted to protest to the flight captain, he was sedated against his will.

Soeoth, a Christian minister from Indonesia, was drugged by guards even after he explained he did not want to be sedated.

Neither man was deported, and both were released in February after approximately two years in a federal facility in San Pedro. The ACLU/SC has won the release of more than a dozen people held indefinitely in violation of federal rules.

'These druggings were medically unnecessary, immoral, and dangerous,' said ACLU/SC staff attorney Ahilan Arulanantham, who represents Diouf and Soeoth. 'Officers sedated these perfectly sane men, apparently just to silence them. The routine nature of these actions raises serious questions about how common this practice is.'

An article published today in the Daily Journal documents the men's experiences. The reporter learned about the druggings during interviews with Diouf and Soeoth for an earlier story.

Medical experts consulted by the ACLU/SC say the drugs used on Soeoth, Haldol and Cogentin, are used to treat psychosis and should not have been prescribed for someone with no history of mental illness. A federal policy prohibits medication of detainees 'solely to facilitate transport, unless a medical professional determines that they present a danger to themselves or to others.'

Arulanantham called that a loose medical standard that is open to abuse. 'It is frightening that the government is using anti-psychotic drugs on immigrants who have no history of mental illness,' he said.