This article originally appeared in ColorLines
Magazine.
With the live broadcasts of the 9/11 commission hearings
over the past few months, the nation has finally begun to see a
serious reckoning of the Bush Administration's counterterrorism
policy. As important as it is, the debate stirred by Richard Clarke
and Condoleezza Rice's testimony has only scratched the surface
of national security issues. The commission issued a long-overdue
criticism April 16 of the government's targeting of immigrants in
national security policies, saying that the roundups and registrations
of Arabs and Muslims failed to apprehend any actual terrorists or
contribute to national security.
This was the commission's first admission that cracking
down on immigrants doesn't make any of us safer.
Now that the 9/11 commission has touched on one of
the worst abuses of the Bush response to Sept. 11, it is up to the
rest of us to crack open this debate by connecting the dots between
the government's mishandling of the war on terrorism abroad and
at home.
The post-Sept. 11 treatment of immigrants and communities
of color is not simply a passing phenomenon. It is a sustained reality
that can be named. When an entity uses policies and procedures to
justify discriminatory treatment based on race, that's called institutional
racism. But what is more insidious is that this racism has been
normalized and legitimized through national security policies.
The
damage done to immigrant communities continues, and the public still
does not know the context and scale of the problem. Since these
policies were implemented, up to 13,000 immigrants have been ordered
deported. The majority are economic migrants and refugees, yet they
are being prosecuted as public enemy number one in the domestic
war against terror.
These policies are based on the idea that immigrants'
interests are opposed to those of the native-born. But immigrants
have a right to safety and security as well. As Mohsin Zaheer, a
Pakistani resident of Brooklyn, NY, put it, "I live here with
my family, so the security of this country is as dear to me as anyone.
I want my kids to be safe."
Since the advent of "special registration,"
an estimated 20,000 Pakistanis have fled Brooklyn in order to avoid
detention. In New Jersey, which has a large Muslim and Arab population,
the FBI has questioned nearly 60,000 people since Sept. 11, according
to agency spokesman Steven Kodak. Jersey City's immigrant community
is so heavily scrutinized by law enforcement that local residents
and even several mainstream newspapers call it "Terror
Town."
In Texas, immigrants have been denied housing because
some landlords and apartment associations are encouraged to screen
applicants for potential terrorists. Latino and Asian immigrants
have been raided and fired from airport security and service jobs.
And across the board, immigrants of color have been increasingly
subjected to a sustained climate of fear, harassment and surveillance.
Scapegoating
provides no real security for anyone but has raised levels of intolerance
and discrimination. This tone was set at the very top. Bush Administration
policies of military trials, indefinite detentions and collective
punishment of immigrant communities gave a green light to the states,
cities and hatemongers to do the same. As the body count climbs
in Iraq, we are likely to see an increase in hate crimes at home.
This April 13, Asa Hutchinson, the Undersecretary
for Border and Transportation Security at the Department of Homeland
Security, announced major changes to the department's immigration
detention policy resulting from last year's Justice Department report
chronicling widespread abuse and racial profiling. These changes
are a step in the right direction, but America also needs a full
accounting of the impact that post-911 policies had on immigrant
communities.
In truth, a counterterrorism strategy based on fear
and racial profiling has undermined security at home. Not only did
immigrant Americans lose a measure of security, but all Americans
were deprived of the truth about Sept. 11 under cover of an anti-immigrant
frenzy.
Tram Nguyen is the Executive Editor of Colorlines
Magazine, a national magazine of race, culture and action. |