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.
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