After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, then Attorney General John Ashcroft ordered the FBI to detain anyone who may have been in contact with the men who were involved in hijacking three planes and crashing them in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania and killing more than 2,700 people.

Agents arrested close to 5,000 Arab and Muslim men, about 800 of whom were charged with violations of U.S. immigration laws. Most of the men were eventually released or deported. However, five years after his arrest, Ali Partovi still sits in an Arizona detention center.

The story of these men is told in “Persons of Interest,” a 2004 documentary by Alison Maclean and Tobias Perse that features interviews with the detainees and their families.

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