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INS and FBI Raids in August 2002 of Pakistani homes
According to the Pakistan Post, the INS and FBI are raiding homes of Pakistanis and in late-August arrested 60 people in Queens and Brooklyn. According to the article, thousands of families are fleeing Brooklyn because of the apparent focus of the INS and FBI on Pakistanis in Brooklyn. For example, NYPD intelligence units went to interview businesses on Coney Island Avenue but did not seem to have similar questions for other businesses run by non-Pakistanis on the same blocks.
U.K. Court Rules U.S. Lacks Any Evidence Against Supposed Terrorist
All charges were dropped against Lotfi Raissi by a court in London. Mr. Raissi's attorney called the American claims "a sorry farce." Although American officials repeatedly alleged that Mr. Raissi was involved with terrorism, they never provided any supporting evidence. Net result: innocent man suffered in prison for months in what he called "the most horrible experience." Way to go, U.S. officials. Now how to convince INS judges to release all the wrongly held detainees.
Another Successful Protest: against HOT 97
Morning deejay Miss Jones of WQHT-FM in New York City (also known as Hot 97) played an insulting satirical song that contained numerous anti-Asian racial epithets. She played it every morning for four mornings from January 17 to 20, 2005. While discussing the song, one of the co-hosts said he would start shooting Asians. The song makes light of the tsunami disaster in December 2004 that killed hundreds of thousands of people. After extensive protests and complaints, Emmis Communications Corp. (which owns the station) issued a written apology, Miss Jones and her program director read on-air apologies, and on January 26, 2005, Emmis Communications announced it was suspending the entire morning show staff indefinitely.
Another Successful Protest: against Abercrombie & Fitch
Another protest yielded results -- on April 19, Abercrombie & Fitch agreed to withdraw sales of T-shirts that used racist images of Asian Americans.
Day Laborers March Against INS and Police Repression
On April 15, over 100 day laborers marched in San Francisco to protest how the SF Police Department has given day laborers citation for minor infractions, how the INS is deporting local airport workers, the INS is raiding immigrants' homes, and the Department of Justice wants police to have the same authority as the INS to arrest immigrants. Related protest took place in Los Angeles on April 9.
Local Police To Arrest and Detain for Immigration Violations
As of April 8, the San Diego Union-Tribune is reporting that the Department of Justice will issue an opinion to allow local police to enforce immigration laws because the DoJ is going to say they have inherent authority to do that. If true, local police will be free to arrest and detain more people based on supposed suspicion of immigration law violations.
Murder Conviction for Post-911 Killing of Immigrant
Tuesday, April 2: As you know, immigrants and U.S. citizens of Muslim, Arab, and South Asian heritage have repeatedly been victims after September 11th. One suburban Dallas man (race not evident in news stories) shot and killed a South Asian naturalized U.S. citizen in a Dallas suburb in October 2001 and is suspected of being involved with two other shootings. The man, Mark Stroman, was convicted of capital murder.
DoJ To Review Civil Rights of Detainees
Tuesday, April 2: The Department of Justice's Office of Inspector General will review the civil rights and civil liberties protections afforded to detainees in Department of Justice custody in connection with the response to the September 11 terrorist attacks. Among the issues the OIG will review are detainees' access to counsel, timeliness of presentation or disposition of criminal or other charges, and physical detention conditions. The OIG plans to review information about federal detainees at the Passaic County Jail in Paterson, New Jersey, and/or the Federal Bureau of Prison's Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York. Of course "and/or" means they might only look at one and ignore the other.
INS to Hunt Down Only Muslim and Arab Immigrants Ordered To Leave
Monday, April 1: INS is starting to hunt down and arrest Muslim immigrants and Arab immigrants in particular who have been ordered to leave. There are about 320,000 immigrants who are categorized as an "alien absconder" who have not left the country despite being ordered to leave. INS is hunting down just those 6,000 from Arab and Muslim countries. Some individuals might be unfairly listed as an absconder if they did not update their contact information and failed to respond to a court notice that they never received.
Archive of old news reports
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Page updated 1 Sept 2002
©2002
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