[2453] in peace2
come if you can
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Julia Steinberger)
Thu Apr 10 11:29:49 2003
Message-Id: <200304101529.LAA05240@magic-pi-ball.mit.edu>
To: peace-announce@MIT.EDU, nowar-announce@MIT.EDU
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2003 11:29:43 -0400
From: Julia Steinberger <julias@MIT.EDU>
Hi, this is today. Come if you can (Govt Center on Green Line).
PROTEST "SPECIAL REGISTRATION"
Solidarity with Arab, Muslim, and South Asian Students and Workers!
TODAY, Thursday, April 10, 2003 - Noon
JFK Federal Building, Government Center, Boston
(by the Government Center T on the Green and Blue Lines)
International students and workers from throughout the region will
converge on the Boston office of the Bureau of Citizenship and
Immigration Services (formerly INS) of the Department of Homeland
Security for coordinated morning registration as part of the
government's "Special Registration Program," which targets Arab,
Muslim, and South Asian men. These members of our community must
submit to photographing and fingerprinting or face severe legal
penalties. On the first registration deadline, more than 1,000
immigrant men in California were summarily arrested and thrown into
crowded detention facilities. This is only the most well reported
incident: untold numbers of immigrant men have been silently
imprisoned in various parts of the country, including students who
have been imprisoned for being a few credits below full-time
enrollment status.
"Special Registration" is a form of racial and religious persecution.
Together with the mass arrests, it is perhaps the most systematic and
chilling assault on fundamental human rights in this country since
the internment of the Japanese 61 years ago.
Registrants will join the noontime picketline after registration.
Sponsors
New England Immigrant & Detainee Response Network (NEIDRN), a
coalition that includes: Alliance for a Secular and Democratic South
Asia, American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADCMA), American
Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), American Friends Service Committee,
Amer Jubran Defense Committee, Amnesty International, Labor Council
for Latin American Advancement, Massachusetts Immigrant & Refugee
Advocacy Coalition (MIRA), National Lawyers Guild, Rhode Island
Detainee Response Network, Roger Calero Defense Committee, and South
Asian Center. Further information: neidrn@neidrn.org
Graduate Employee Organization (GEO), UAW Local 2322, the graduate
student employee union at the UMass-Amherst campus. Further
information: (413) 545-0705 or geo@external.umass.edu
