PRESS RELEASE

Community Language and Culture Bank
Media Contact: Kayse Jama
kayse@interculturalorganizing.org
http://www.interculturalorganizing.org
More Information: (503) 287-4117

FIRST THEY CAME FOR THE MUSLIMS:
AMERICA'S WAR ON IMMIGRANTS
Featuring...

Michael Dale, Northwest Workers Justice Project
Emma Franks, Activist and Refugee from Uganda
Pramila Jayapal, Executive Director, Hate Free Zone Washington
Ramon Ramirez, PCUN (farmworkers union)

THURSDAY, APRIL14
7:00 PM, PSU Multicultural Center

Shortly after the September 11th terrorist attacks, President George W. Bush declared a "war on terror." Although Bush has repeatedly stated that the war on terror is not a war on immigrants, collateral damage to immigrants, refugees and asylees is irrefutable. One week after the terrible attacks of September 11th, the government began implementing policies and legislation that have eroded the fundamental civil and constitutional rights of immigrants and non-citizens, all in the name of “national security.” Has three and 1/2 years of targeting immigrant communities made us safer or have these policies created a climate of fear and distrust? On April 14, the Center will host a public forum on the post-9/11 immigration law changes, which include: 

• Detentions (Began 9/20/2001) - A number of Department of Justice regulations authorized the secret and indefinite detention of non-citizens. This has resulted in the detention of over 1,200 people since 9/11. Many were detained for months without access to legal council, the courts or their families.
• Closed Immigration Hearings (9/21/2001) - The Chief Immigration Judge released a memo authorizing certain immigration hearings to be closed to the public. No visitors, no family, and no press were allowed.
• USA PATRIOT Act (10/26/2001) - The PATRIOT Act directs the INS to implement an entry and exit data system, and adds new justifications for denying entry and for deporting non-citizens. Under the Act, the Attorney General has exclusive authority to “certify” an immigrant as a terrorist and to hold them in indefinite detention. The FBI was given authority to investigate citizens without probable cause of a crime, and expands the ability of law enforcement officers to conduct secret searches and surveillance. 
• Interviews of Immigrants (2001 - 2002) - The government directs interviews of 8,000 Arab and South Asian immigrants solely based on their religion or ethnic background, without any suspicion of crime or links to terrorism. To date, none of the interviewees have been found to be linked to terrorism in any way.
• Military Tribunals (11/13/2001) - President Bush issued an Executive Order authorizing creation of military tribunals to try non-citizens alleged to be involved in international terrorism. Military tribunals permit holding people in military custody without the ability to communicate with anyone. The verdicts are not reviewable by federal courts, but only by the Secretary of Defense and the President. Military tribunals have the power to issue death sentences. Today, 680 foreign nationals are being detained in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and face possible trials by military tribunals.
• Alien Absconder Initiative (1/25/2002) - The Deputy Attorney General issued a memo instructing that 6,000 men from “Al Qaeda harboring countries” would be the first to be targeted for apprehension under the “Alien Absconder Apprehension Initiative.” This initiative has led to the sudden detention and deportation of immigrants without due process of law.
• Operation Tarmac (4/2002) - The INS began conducting raids on airports throughout the country in the name of national security. As of February of 2003, nearly 800 immigrants working at 17 airports nationwide have been arrested. Many of those arrested were taken from their homes in the early morning hours without warning. Most have only been charged with using false documents to work. None of the workers arrested through Operation Tarmac have been tied to any “terrorist” organization or activity.
• Special Registration (8/13/2002) - The National Security Entry-Exit System (“NSEERS”) requires all males aged 16 years or older who are citizens or nationals of one of 25 designated countries to register. Registration requires each person to be fingerprinted, photographed and interrogated. To date, over 80,000 foreign citizens have registered with the Immigration Service. Of those who complied, 13,000 were placed in deportation proceedings. This system targets people based on national origin, race and religion, and alienates the very communities whose cooperation we need.
• Homeland Security Act (11/25/2002) - The Homeland Security Act created the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”). The Immigration and Naturalization Service (“INS”) was abolished, and replaced by three different departments. DHS has exclusive authority to grant or refuse visas. The DHS’s structure does not coordinate services and enforcement, or have one person in charge of these functions. In addition, immigration services continue to be underfunded, causing backlogs and hardship for immigrants and their families.
• DOJ Inspector General Report (6/26/2003) - The Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General released a comprehensive report on the treatment of the September 11 detainees. The report identified a pattern of abuses and delays for the detainees, who were held for up to a month before charges were filed, routinely denied bond and held even after they were ordered deported. The INS failed to inform attorneys where their clients were confined or when hearings were scheduled. The report detailed deplorable conditions, with some detainees subjected to verbal and physical abuse by guards. 
• Military Tribunals (7/2003) - President Bush designated six detainees in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba as eligible for trial by military commission. The U.S. government has put the prosecutions on hold in three of these cases involving two U.K. nationals and one Australian citizen in response to concerns raised by the British and Australian governments about due process and fair trial in the military commissions.
• CLEAR Act H.R. 2671 (Introduced 7/9/2003) - The CLEAR Act would authorize local enforcement officials to enforce federal immigration law. Immigration law is extremely complicated, and an immigration officer must go through months of training before being certified. Local officials would not be required to undergo this thorough training. The act would also grant immunity to police officers involved in civil rights violations. Lastly, funds from visa application fees would be used to offset the cost of the bill’s mandates. As the costs of the bill increase, so would the visa fees — placing and extra burden on immigrants. This act would create an environment of fear and distrust within immigrant communities and discourage immigrants from reporting crimes, causing our neighborhoods to become less safe.
• Special Registration Modified (12/2003) - The DHS published an interim rule that lifted certain NSEERS requirements for Special Registration. This rule was widely misreported by the press as an end to the NSEERS program. In fact, important NSEERS requirements remain in effect.
• US-VISIT Program (1/2004) - DHS began rolling out the US-VISIT program, an entry/exit tracking system where all visitors (except certain Mexican and Canadian citizens), are fingerprinted and photographed upon entry to the United States.
• H.R. 100 Introduced (1/2005) - H.R. 100 would severely restrict review of many cases involving long-term, legal immigrants who have served criminal sentences, even for nonviolent offenses. Although the Supreme Court ruled in 2001 that review is available in these cases through the "Great Writ" of habeas corpus, the Dreier bill would take the extreme step of explicitly foreclosing that option. 
• H.R. 98 Introduced (1/2005) - H.R. 98 would transform the Social Security card into a Big Brother-style national ID card by adding photographs and electronic features and linking them to a database, although the bill disavows the term "national ID" to describe the new cards. H.R. 98 would mandate that the employers check the cards against the database. Because of notoriously flawed immigration records, the database would wrongly misidentify many legal residents and citizens and would increase discrimination against job applicants that employers believe "look foreign."
• The REAL ID Act - H.R. 418 (2/10/2005) - Passed by the House of Representatives
  The REAL ID Act would make it easier to send asylum-seekers back to the countries they are fleeing if they cannot provide written "corroboration" of their claims, a move contrary to international law. Federal law already gives officials ample discretion to deny improper asylum claims, and asylum applicants are subject to much more extensive scrutiny than virtually any other pool of non-citizens seeking entry to the United States. The court-stripping provisions are a direct attack on the Supreme Court's decision in St. Cyr v. INS, a landmark immigrants rights case that established the ability of immigrants who were convicted of crimes many years earlier to have their "day in court" despite restrictions on judicial review passed in 1996. Another provision of the REAL ID Act would make it possible to deport long-term, lawful, permanent residents for providing non-violent, humanitarian support to organizations labeled "terrorist" by the government. This provision would apply even when such support was completely legal at the time it was provided. The bill would also retroactively make legal donations to "terrorist" groups grounds for deportation of green-card holders who have lived here for decades. The Patriot Act already allows the government to deny entry to non-citizens outside the country on this basis. The REAL ID Act would also worsen the already troubling driver’s license provisions in the intelligence reform legislation passed last year by forcing states to deny driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants. The use of state motor vehicle agencies as agents of the federal immigration service would further the growing trend, alarming both conservatives and progressives, of transforming drivers’ licenses into de facto national ID cards. It would also lead to an increase in unlicensed drivers, undermining public safety and increasing insurance rates for everyone. Motor vehicles employees lack training in federal immigration law, and are likely instead to rely on ethnic profiling based on notions of who "looks foreign."

Sources: Hate Free Zone Campaign of Washington, ACLU

Where: Portland State University 
Multicultural Center
Smith Memorial Student Union, Room 228
SW Broadway and Montgomery
When: Thrusday, April 14 - 7:00 PM
Free and Open to the Public

Co-Sponsored by:
PSU Multicultural Center