"South Asian, Arab, and Muslim Civil Rights Issues Post-9/11"
Session notes from SAPC
2004
The following notes were taken by volunteer note-takers. There
may be errors, and notes may not represent full session
content.
Speakers:
Sanjeev Bery, ACLU of Northern California
Reshma Yunus, American Muslim Voice
Impacts:
- after 9/11, people were suspect simple by virtue of their
background.
- waves of deportation
- 1200 people, both documented and undocumented, detained and
deported
- people detained, and scretly placed in facilities a great
distance from their homes and communities
- FBI's post-Watergate era internal regulations restricting it from
spying on local community groups lifted; community groups started
noticing strange new people showing up at mosques
- increased xenophobia against Muslims and those believed to
resemble Muslims
- INS special registration, a program where boys and men 16 and
older from a long list of primarily culturally Muslim nations required
to register
Special Registration:
- many were detained, and sometimes deported for lack of
documentation, sometimes involving errors that registrants or their
imigrantional lawyers wern't aware of
- some detained/deported because of the impact of INS errors and
inefficiency
- some registrants wrongly told they had no right to counsel, or
were denied right to attorneys
- some not given info about whrger they were to be detained or
deported
- special registration not adequately explained to those required
to register
- folks with their papers in order, but not aware of the special
registration program, can be detained and deported for not having
registered
- no extenuating circumstances
- many Bay Area community groups like Alliance of South Asians
Taking Action (ASATA) and Friends of South Asia (FOSA) were involved
with community education on Special Registration, had a presence at INS
facilities during the registration process
- Special Registration ended in fall 2003
- the pressure of community groups around the country likely helped
end the program, by creating noise and elevating debate on the program
CLEAR Act:
- proposed law would require local law enforcement to enforce
immigration law
- if passed, would drive a wedge between police departments and
local immigrant communities
- may also make victims of domestic violence hesitant to call the
police