Filner had Run-in with INS Officials in 2003

Republicans are pointing to a 2003 altercation between Rep. Bob Filner (D-Calif.) and a government official as proof that the lawmaker’s August run-in with an airline worker is a pattern of behavior that the ethics committee should examine.

A Feb. 22, 2003, Justice Department incident report alleges that Filner accompanied a constituent along with two local reporters to an immigration detention facility in the town of El Centro, Calif., in his district and demanded to see and talk to a detainee from Pakistan.

Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) officers told him that only the detainee’s wife, whom Filner had accompanied there, could see the detainee.

Read more: (Susan Crabtree, “Lawmaker had a Run-In with INS Officials in ’03,” The Hill, 9/21/07)