Let Our People Go

Editorial from The Arab-American News of Dearborn, MI, Dec. 21, 2002.



There’s something very wrong here. The United States government is currently detaining and strip searching masses of people of Middle Eastern descent who voluntarily showed up on the first registration deadline to register with the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Los Angeles earlier this week. This response to the community’s willingness to cooperate with authorities was obviously not designed to encourage further compliance with the post 9/11 law requiring such registration. We believe it was designed to actually discourage further cooperation from the community with the government, thus ultimately giving the government wider latitude in its ongoing trampling of constitutional and civil rights. Henceforth, when thousands of people don’t cooperate in any given initiative out of well-founded fear and mistrust of the Bush-Ashcroft regime, detention camps can be set up all over the country.

In another fiasco this week astounding in its transparency, the government ‘raided’ homes and businesses of Middle Easterners who for decades have been sending their hard-earned money back home through informal channels to support families there. New legislation regulating that practice was cited as the reason for raids all over the country and scenes of startled, obviously-clueless Arab Americans being dragged out of work by FBI agents danced across the nation’s television screens.

If there were any doubts before this week, these events have put them to rest. It is clearly ‘open season’ on Arabs and Muslims. If the government were truly interested in effectively implementing legislation, it would have made contingency plans for dealing with the inevitable minor visa violations that came to light in the Los Angeles situation, and conducted educational sessions for the country’s many immigrants of many ethnicities who wire money overseas all the time as soon as that legislation had passed.

But the fact is that the government is only interested in instilling terror in the hearts and minds of Arabs and Muslims everywhere. Why? The coming firestorm in the Middle East. Conducting the Bush Administration’s brand of foreign policy can be difficult with a nation of immigrants looking on, so shutting those immigrants up is mandatory. If our foreign policy were just, of course, that would not be necessary. But that is a distant dream right now. This is our worst nightmare.



What You Can Do to Stop This Government Terror

1. Join Justice For Detainees in a neighborhood leafleting campaign. Come to our next meeting on Friday, Jan. 10, 6:30 – 8:30, Brooklyn Ethical Culture Society, 53 Prospect Park West at 2nd St. Guest speakers will address Special Registration and the undermining of our Bill of Rights. Contact us at 718-482-3157 or JusticeForDetainees@hotmail.com.



2. The Coalition Against Special Registrations has called a demonstration on Friday, Jan. 10, at the INS, 26 Federal Plaza. For more information or to endorse the demonstration, contact sarahjfrej@igc.org or 212-647-8966.



January 1012:00 Protest INS RegistrationsLocation: INS 26 Federal Plaza New York NYDemand an end to Ashcroft's registration of males from 20 countries & arrests of hundreds. Last of 3 weekly pickets, joining ongoing pickets of Cmt for the Release of Farouk Abdel-Muhti. 1/10 is deadline for next round of registrations. In front of INS headquarters, 26 Federal Plaza (B'way at Worth, 4/5/6, N/R to City Hall, A/C/E to Chambers). Campaign to Stop the Disappearances (CHRI: Coalition for the Human Rights of Immigrants, DRUM: Desis Rising Up & Moving, Prison Moratorium Project). Phone: 718-205-3036Email: namita@drumnation.org

January 1012:00 pm

PROTEST the RegistrationsLocation: INS Building 10 W. Jackson Chicago IL

PROTEST the Registrations, Detentions and Round-Ups of Our Arab, Muslim and South Asian Brothers & Sisters RALLY URGENT! January 10, 2003 is the next INS deadline when non-citizen men and boys from 14 countries are ordered to register INS - We Are Watching You! December 16 th was the deadline for the 1 st wave of INS registrations. In Los Angeles up to 1000 Iranian and Middle Eastern men complying with Attorney General Ashcroft's registration order were 'rewarded' by being detained. People registering were photographed, fingerprinted and interrogated. Detentions were for minor visa irregularities, often the result of government processing mistakes or delays. They faced harsh conditions, including humiliating strip searches. It didn't matter if these men had lived in the US for many years, were working, going to school or raising families. They were treated as enemies. As with the legendary actions! of the Danes who protected Jewish people under Hitler, we must commit to stand with those under attack today. We Say "NOT AGAIN! NOT IN OUR NAMES!" Phone: 312-583-6194Email: chicago@refuseandresist.org



January 1012:00 pm

Protest the INS RegistrationsLocation: INS Office Loyala & Girod, New Orleans LANATIONAL DAY OF ACTION! STOP THE RACIST IMMIGRANT REGISTRATIONS AND DETENTIONS! FREE ALL THE DETAINEES! REPEAL THE REPRESSIVE LAWS!! (1996 ANTI-T TERRORISM ACT, USA PATRIOT ACT, HOMELAND SECURITY ACT) Join with people from across the U.S. to protest the racist driven program of registration and detention of immigrants. In a program that parallels the imprisonment of Japanese-Americans during WWII, the US government has mandated the registration by the INS of non-permanent immigrants from 20 countries, all predominantly Muslim, and North Korea. In New Orleans we will join people across the country to unmask the governments phony war on terrorism, which is really a war on the civil liberties of immigrants, African Americans, trade unionists, and anyone that is willing to speak out against the war and for social justice.



Los Angeles

JANUARY 10TH, 2003: RESIST THE INHUMANE AND UNCONSTITUTIONAL GESTAPO-LIKE ROUND-UPS OF IMMIGRANTS BY THE INS: Be at either the Westwood Federal Building, 11000 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. or at the downtown Federal Building, 300 N. Los Angeles Str., L.A. from 8:00 a.m. through 5:00 p.m., with peak gatherings and actions planned for 12 noon and 4:00 p.m. Download our flyer, and distribute! THANKS! See our events calendar for more actions around this theme.

SEATTLE

Register Your Dissent!

Protest the Round-ups and Detentions of Immigrants

Press Conference: Friday Jan. 10th

12 Noon at INS building 815 Airport Way S.

Rally: Monday Jan. 13th at 5:00 PM

Hing Hay Park 423 Maynard S.

(Bring Candles)