STATEMENT: Rights Working Group Reflects on a Changed America Since 9/11; Calls for Restoration of Civil and Human Rights | Rights Working Group

STATEMENT: Rights Working Group Reflects on a Changed America Since 9/11; Calls for Restoration of Civil and Human Rights | Rights Working Group

"We join people throughout this country and the world who are reflecting on the lives lost, the pain suffered by their loved ones and the many ways in which our nation has changed."

Rights Working Group Reflects on a Changed America Since 9/11; Makes Call for Restoration of Civil and Human Rights

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Today, we pause to reflect on the horrible attacks that happened 10 years ago this Sunday, when nearly 3,000 people were torn from their families and loved ones in one horrible moment. We join people throughout this country and the world who are reflecting on the lives lost, the pain suffered by their loved ones and the many ways in which our nation has changed.

Despite the horrors of that day, we remain moved by the way people throughout the United States put aside their differences in the aftermath of the attacks and came together in empathy, courage and support. We remember the many firefighters, police officers and ordinary citizens who searched for survivors and so generously gave of themselves to help the families of the deceased.

This nation was changed following the attacks, not only by the attacks themselves but by the government’s response, which included two wars and the expansion of the federal government’s powers of surveillance, detention, and access to private information and property, along with the curtailment of civil liberties and human rights. Since 9/11, many have contended with greater levels of discrimination, restrictions of their free speech rights and freedom of movement, while undergoing intrusive searches, racial profiling, and deportations without due process--all in the name of the “War on Terror.” These laws, practices and policies are not only morally wrong but they have diminished America’s global standing and made us all less safe.

On Wednesday, September 14, the Rights Working Group, founded in the aftermath of 9/11 to address the curtailment of these rights, will call on Congress and the Obama Administration to end these discriminatory laws and policies and to restore our civil liberties and human rights and support passage of the End Racial Profiling Act.

In the months before Sept. 11, the End the Racial Profiling Act (ERPA) had bipartisan support and passage of the bill was virtually guaranteed. For African Americans, who had long experienced the humiliation of unwarranted stops and searches based on the color of their skin, passage of ERPA would break new ground. But after Sept. 11,congressional interest in ERPA dimmed as the focus turned to national security and passage of the PATRIOT Act. The federal government began targeting people of Arab, Middle Eastern, South Asian and Muslim background for extra scrutiny.

Under the Bush administration, more than 1,200 men of Arab, Middle Eastern, South Asian and Muslim backgrounds were detained. In addition, the federal government launched the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSSERS) that required more than 80,000 men, who were Arab, Muslim, Middle Eastern, and South Asian to register and undergo interrogations, detentions and deportations. The program did not yield a single terrorism conviction.

The federal government through the Department of Homeland Security conflated immigration law with national security policies and devoted additional resources to detentions and deportations of immigrants, worksite raids, home raids and collaborations with local law enforcement to enforce federal immigration law. Through the 287 (g) program, the Criminal Alien Program and the Secure Communities program, the federal government has enlisted local and state law enforcement agencies to enforce civil immigration law. These programs have incentivized racial profiling and broken the trust between police and local law enforcement.

Under the PATRIOT Act, the federal government has expanded its power to search and seize private documents and records and engage in surveillance, indefinite detentions and deportations without due process. The FBI’s Domestic Investigative Operational Guidelines expanded opportunities for profiling because race, ethnicity and religion can now be used as factors to launch an investigation.

Federal policies that encourage or enable racial profiling are not consistent with this nation’s values as recognized in the U.S. Constitution. In the interest of restoring civil liberties and civil and human rights protections for all those living in the United States, RWG makes a number of recommendations. Among them are the following:

President Obama should:

• Support and strenuously advocate passage of the End Racial Profiling Act which would ban racial profiling based on race, religion, ethnicity or national origin, on the federal, state and local level and mandate the collection of data on racial profiling.
• Issue an executive order prohibiting racial profiling by federal officers and banning law enforcement practices that disproportionately target people for investigation and enforcement based on race, ethnicity, religion or national origin. The executive order should also require the collection of data by federal enforcement agencies about law enforcement actions broken down by the apparent or perceived race, ethnicity, national origin and religion of individuals targeted by enforcement agents. This data should include charges lodged against those targeted and the ultimate disposition of the cases.
• Terminate the 287 (g) program that empowers state and local police to enforce immigration law and state unequivocally that the federal government alone has jurisdiction and authority to enforce immigration law.

TheDepartment Of Justice Should:

• Revise the 2003 Guidance on the Use of Race by Federal Law Enforcement Agencies. The revised guidance should include the following changes: eliminate the loopholes that allow profiling in the context of national security and border security; include religion and national origin as protected classes; include a prohibition against racial profiling for law enforcement surveillance activities; apply the guidance to state and local law enforcement agencies that cooperate with or receive funding from the federal government; and make the guidance enforceable.
• Revise the 2008 Attorney General’s Guidelines for Domestic FBI Operations and the 2011 FBI’s Domestic Investigative Operational Guidelines to ensure that they fully comport with constitutional and international human rights protections.

Congress should:

• Enact the End Racial Profiling Act.
• Provide oversight to ensure that the various agencies of the executive branch are undertaking the reforms identified in the recommendations above. If agencies are not adopting these reforms, Congress should adopt legislation mandating relevant and meaningful changes in policy.
• Repeal section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
• Eliminate funding for the Secure Communities Initiative, the Criminal Alien Program and other programs that utilize state and local law enforcement agencies to conduct immigration enforcement, until and unless meaningful and effective oversight mechanisms can be implemented to ensure that these programs do not allow for racial profiling or other civil and human rights violations.

This post is part of the Reflecting on Our Loss and Reclaiming Our Rights National Week of Action. To learn more, click here. To take action, sign the petition to President Obama.