Goa native sues gov. agency By KARA BECKER
A Goa native and former employee of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency at Boston is suing the agency and the Department of Homeland Security for roughly $10 million. Edward Furtado alleges that he was discriminated against by the agency's Boston port director, Lorraine Henderson, who works at the Logan International Airport division. Furtado, who now lives in Georgia and works for UPS, claims he was singled out on account of his race while working at the agency, which is part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Furtado states that he was told he "was a GI Joe" and that "the United States government owns him," and that when he is "asked to jump, he must jump," according to his complaint filed in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts late last month. Theodore Woo, a public affairs officer for the Boston office of the agency, confirmed Furtado's employment, but would not comment on the allegations. Henderson was unavailable for comment. Furtado and his attorneys Michael Goldstein and Jeffrey Mazur also cite in the legal complaint incidents where Furtado was allegedly asked to stay late and perform miscellaneous tasks for which he was never compensated. In addition, Furtado alleges that he was verbally threatened by agency supervisors and forced to quit for no apparent reason. "All of my Irish coworkers told me that this is only a place for the Irish, and that it wasn't meant for people from other countries," said Furtado, who said he fled to Georgia with his wife and 6-year-old son out of fear in 2007. "The port director said, 'You don't have friends here.' In other words she told me, 'Go away,'" he said. Last summer, when Furtado first announced he would sue the agency, he also told INDIA New England that he was physically abused and dragged by the ear for several yards in front of fellow agency employees. This claim, however, was not included in his lawsuit, which contains mistakes, including a statement that Furtado "speaks fluent Indian." There are also typos in the complaint, including of the word "secretary," which is misspelled when referring Homeland Security secretary, Michael Chertoff, whose name is also misspelled in the complaint as "Chernoff." Last month, Furtado e-mailed INDIA New England, seeking publication of his story. "Please," he wrote, "do all you can to represent the voice of the voiceless community in the United States." http://www.indianewengland.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&tier=4&id=7715F39FF01F49BFB2B39616EC5852BA -- DEV BOREM KORUM. Gabe Menezes. London, England