LOUISVILLE - Nearly a year after federal agents in Kentucky rounded up more than 50 Mauritanians, authorities remain tight-lipped about what prompted the roundups or why some of the immigrants were detained for a month.

        Agents from the FBI and the Immigration and Naturalization Service raided Sidi Mohamed Ould Bah's Louisville apartment on Sept. 14 - three days after the terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C.

        Mr. Bah, 32, was one of 27 immigrants from the northwestern African nation taken into custody in Jefferson County that day.

        A week later, federal authorities conducted a similar sweep of Mauritanians in Boone County. The FBI said that roundup involved more than 25 people.

        Federal authorities still won't discuss what information they used to get search warrants for the northern Kentucky raid, and the warrants remain sealed. Authorities say the purpose of the Louisville sweep was to find people whose visas had expired or who ignored deportation orders.

        Jerry Phillips, a supervisory special agent for the INS in Louisville, said none of the Louisville Mauritanians was charged with crimes connected to terrorism.

        No connections to the Sept. 11 attacks were found among the northern Kentucky Mauritanians who were questioned, said David Beyer, an FBI agent and spokesman for the Louisville office.

        But Agent Beyer defended the roundup, pointing at the atmosphere of public fear after Sept. 11. An outpouring of tips swamped law enforcement agencies that were still uncertain about the origins of the attacks, he said.

        “In that situation, obviously we were obliged to quickly check out many reports of suspicious activity that seemed credible,” Agent Beyer said. “We would have rightly been criticized if we hadn't done that.”

        Still, some of those affected feel like they were unfairly singled out.

        Mohamed Abdallahi, 27, one of the Boone County Mauritanians, was detained for more than a month. He said he had never gotten as much as a traffic ticket before he was taken into custody.

        “When they took me away, I thought it would be for one day, maybe two. I was treated bad. I still feel bad about it,” Mr. Abdallahi said.

        Mr. Bah and a friend, Sidi Mohamed Ould Abdou - a 25-year-old Mauritanian immigrant from Louisville who also was detained - were more muted in their criticism. Both are hoping an immigration court will grant them political asylum so they can live permanently in the United States.

        “We are not happy about what happened,” Mr. Bah said. “But I understand why it happened.”

        Dennis Clare, the attorney for four Louisville Mauritanians who were held for more than a month, said he was told by an INS agent that the roundup was partly motivated by a tip that one of the four had taken flying lessons.

        But Mr. Clare said none of the four had taken flying lessons and that the official reason he was given was that the visas of the four had expired.

        “This was an extraordinary action. I'm sure it would not have happened had it not been for Sept. 11. This was a knee-jerk reaction, which I can understand after such a terrible catastrophe,” Mr. Clare said.

        “What I don't understand is why they were held for more than a month and, in some cases, for a month and a half.”

        In a statement, the Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati criticized the northern Kentucky sweep just after it happened.

        Karen Dabdoub, administrator of the center, said FBI agents met later in the year with members of the center to explain their actions. She said an agent told them that a delivery service had delivered a box with Arabic writing on it to a Florence apartment where some of the Mauritanians lived, but left it with a neighbor because no one was at home. The neighbor became suspicious and called the FBI.

        The box, Ms. Dabdoub said, contained Korans - the sacred book of Islam - shipped to the northern Kentucky Mauritanians by the Saudi Arabian government.

        Agent Beyer declined to confirm or deny whether the FBI received that tip. He said the Boone County sweep was in response to more than one tip, and he would not disclose details.

        Whatever the tips suggested, the information didn't pan out, he said.

        The 27 detained in Louisville and taken to the INS office downtown could not show papers that proved their legal residence, Mr. Phillips said.

        Except for the four who were held longer, the Mauritanians were released when a records check verified they had proper legal status, he said.

        Two of the four Louisville men have since returned voluntarily to Mauritania. But Mr. Bah and Mr. Abdou are fighting deportation, filing claims for asylum that Mr. Clare said probably will take years to resolve.

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