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Massachusetts: Tactics decried by INS surrounding the woman's detainment are ''troubling.''

BARNSTABLE - The attorney for a mother separated from her three children during an early-morning immigration raid in Dennis two weeks ago says the circumstances surrounding the woman's detainment are ''troubling.''

Attorney and former immigration judge William Joyce planned to file papers with the federal government today seeking Solange Celine's release.

''These guys have a job to do but let's do it in a way that is a little more professional,'' Joyce said about alleged actions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at the time of Celine's arrest.

Celine contends the agents used abusive and obscene language in front of her three sons when they arrested her.

The same allegations have been made by her brother, Dieuseul ''Joe'' Celine, who was present when the arrest occurred.

''Our officers act in a professional manner,'' Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Paula Grenier said Friday. She had not heard any information about the actions of agents in this particular case, but said if complaints exist they should be brought to the attention of immigration officials.

Celine, 35, and her husband, Ilionick Fervius, 39, came to the United States from Haiti approximately nine years ago, Joe Celine said.

Fervius was denied asylum and was in the United States illegally, according to documents in the possession of the family's minister, the Rev. David Johnson of the Evangelical Free Church in East Dennis.

Similar documents have not been found in Solange Celine's case, but Joyce thinks their previous legal representation could have led to the denial of their appeals for asylum.

Despite a motion to reopen her case, Solange Celine's appeals were denied in 2003, according to a hot line for status information on immigration cases before the Executive Office for Immigration Review, the federal agency that supervises immigration cases.

Haiti has been one of the top five countries for foreign nationals receiving asylum for the past five years, according to government statistics.

Although Joyce said deportation orders for the couple gave the government the right to pick them up, he questioned whether the situation could have been handled differently.

''Usually they won't take out the mother of three young children and leave them there,'' he said. ''We're going to ask the government to consider putting her on supervised release.''

Immigration officials work with parents to provide for the care of their children in these types of situations, Grenier said, but she would not elaborate on what that might mean in this case. ''It really depends on the individual,'' she said.

Johnson is currently helping Joe Celine take care of the children.

The boys - 7, 4 and 3 years old - constantly ask when they will see their parents again, Johnson said. All three were born on Cape Cod and are U.S. citizens.

Johnson has received and forwarded to Joyce a stack of letters in support of the family from friends and community members, he said.

Those letters could prove helpful in convincing an immigration judge that Solange Celine would not flee if released, Joyce said.

Celine is at the Barnstable Country Correctional Facility in Bourne with 11 other people picked up on immigration violations, according to Barnstable County Sheriff James Cummings. It is the first time immigration officials have used a Barnstable County facility to hold individuals on immigration violations for an extended period of time, Cummings said.

Fervius is being held at the Essex County Correctional Facility in Middleton.