[2141] in peace2
TODAY: EMERGENCY PROTEST OUTSIDE THE INS, STOP THE MASS DETENTIONS
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Anton F Van Der Ven)
Fri Dec 20 01:43:26 2002
Message-Id: <200212200642.BAA166155@lattice.mit.edu>
To: peace-announce@MIT.EDU, greens-announce@MIT.EDU
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Date: Fri, 20 Dec 2002 01:42:48 -0500
From: Anton F Van Der Ven <avdv@MIT.EDU>
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Emergency Protest Outside the INS
Stop the Mass Detentions!
Friday, 12/20, 5:00 p.m.
JFK Federal Building, Boston
(Near the Government Center T stop)
Reports have just arrived that between 500 and 1000 Muslim and
Arab immigrants from five different countries were arrested and
detained this week in California when they showed up at local
Immigration and Naturalization Service offices in compliance
with the INS' new mandatory registration program. It is not
yet clear whether similar detentions are taking place in other
parts of the country.
In the recent past, the INS has issued a series of calls to
immigrants from 20 different countries. All men from these
countries over the age of 16 who do not have Green Cards are
required to register in person with the INS by the deadline
specified in each call or face severe legal penalties.
Immigrants from Iran, Iraq, Libya, the Sudan or Syria who
responded to the summons in good faith have been summarily
arrested and thrown together in crowded detention facilities.
By Wednesday, the jails in southern California were
overflowing.
Like the mass detentions of the Japanese during World War II,
these arrests are a major assault on the most basic principles
of human rights. It is crucial that such actions be met with
immediate and broad resistance. Please join us in front of the
INS in Boston and circulate this call to action as widely as
possible.
For more info, goto www.amerjubrandefense.org
____________________________________________________________________
Hundreds of Muslim Immigrants Rounded Up in Calif.
By Jill Serjeant
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Hundreds of Iranian and other Middle East citizens
were in southern California jails on Wednesday after coming forward to comply
with a new rule to register with immigration authorities only to wind up
handcuffed and behind bars.
Shocked and frustrated Islamic and immigrant groups estimate that more than
500 people have been arrested in Los Angeles, neighboring Orange County and
San Diego in the past three days under a new nationwide anti-terrorism
program. Some unconfirmed reports put the figure as high as 1,000.
The arrests sparked a demonstration by hundreds of Iranians outside a Los
Angeles immigration office. The protesters carried banners saying "What's
next? Concentration camps?" and "What happened to liberty and justice?."
A spokesman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service said no numbers of
people arrested would be made public. A Justice Department (news – web sites)
spokesman could not be reached for comment.
The head of the southern California chapter of the American Civil Liberties
Union (news - web sites) compared the arrests to the internment of Japanese
Americans in camps during the Second World War.
"I think it is shocking what is happening. It is reminiscent of what happened
in the past with the internment of Japanese Americans. We are getting a lot of
telephone calls from people. We are hearing that people went down wanting to
cooperate and then they were detained," said Ramona Ripston, the ACLU's
executive director.
JAILS OVERFLOWING
One activist said local jails were so overcrowded that the immigrants Could be
sent to Arizona, where they could face weeks or months in prisons awaiting
hearings before immigration judges or deportation.
"It is a shock. You don't expect this to happen. It is really putting fright
and apprehension in the community. People who come from these countries --
this is what they expect from their government. Not from America," said Sabiha
Khan of the Southern California chapter of the Council on American Islamic
Relations.
The arrests were part of a post Sept. 11 program that requires all males over
16 from a list of 20 Arab or Middle East countries, who do not have permanent
resident status in the United States, to register with U.S. immigration
authorities.
Monday was the deadline for men from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya and Sudan. News
of the mass arrests came first in southern California, which is home to more
than 600,000 Iranian exiles and their families.
Officials declined to give figures for those arrested or for the numbers of
people who turned up to register, be fingerprinted and have their photographs
taken.
"We are not releasing any numbers," said Immigration and Naturalization
Service (INS) spokesman Francisco Arcaute.
CALLS FOR HELP
Islamic groups and the local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU) said they had been swamped with calls for help.
INS spokesman Arcaute said those arrested had violated immigration laws,
overstayed their visas, or were wanted for crimes. The program was prompted by
concern about the lack of records on tourists, students and other visitors to
the United States after the Sept. 11 hijack plane attacks on New York and
Washington.
Islamic community leaders said many of the detainees had been living, working
and paying taxes in the United States for five or 10 years, and had families
here.
"Terrorists most likely wouldn't come to the INS to register. It is really a
bad way to go about it. They are being treated as criminals and that really
goes against American ideals of fairness, and justice and democracy," Khan
said.
The Iranian protesters said many of those detained were victims of official
delays in processing visa and green card requests.
"My father, they just took him in," one young man told reporters. "They've
been treating him like an animal. They put him in a room with, like, 50 other
people and no bed or anything."
Khan said one of those in jail was a doctor, who was being sponsored for U.S.
citizenship when his sponsor died.
One Syrian man said he went to register in Orange County with a dozen friends.
He was the only one to come out of the INS office. "All my friends are inside
right now," M.M. Trapici, 45, told reporters. "I have to visit the family for
each one today. Most of them have small kids."
