Links to resources, information, and fact sheets for your community

Fact Sheets and Background Information on US Military Intervention in Afghanistan

News Archives: Immigration-Related Issues after 9/11/01

Please note: The following materials and websites have been listed as sources for information, and do not necessarily reflect organizational affiliation. Please email webmaster (nnirr@nnirr.org) if you know of further resources to post on this site.

ACLU:
legislative updates on “anti-terrorism” legislation and censorship in the post-9-11 crisis

The American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee:
Fact Sheets on Arabs and the Arab World, and Fact Sheets About Islam

Arab American Institute:
Not Quite White: Race Classification and the Arab American Experience; by Helen Hatab Samhan.
Examines the history of racial classification of Arabs by the United States government.

The Association Tepeyac in New York City:
information on accessing aid for families of undocumented WTC victims

The Coalition for the Human Rights of Immigrants:
bilingual English/Spanish resource packets for organizers working to defend against harassment and abuse of immigrants

Education Development Center:
“Beyond Blame: Reacting to the Terrorist Attack,” a curriculum that focuses on issues of justice, fairness, and mislaid blame in times of crisis

Incite! Women of Color Against Violence:
online organizing packet with fact sheets, know-your-rights, and ideas for local events

The National Lawyers’ Guild:
Know-Your-Rights pamphlet if you are ever questioned by the FBI, INS, or local police officers

MADRE:
Justice, Not Vengeance toolkit in response to September 11

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Fact Sheets and Background Information on US Military Intervention in Afghanistan

The Afghan Women’s Mission is an organization working to fund projects run by Afghan women's organizations which address the health care needs of Afghan refugees. Up-to-date international newswires on Afghanistan are available on this site

Arab Gateway is a valuable and easy-to-browse source of information for politics, history, economy, and culture in the Arab World. This website features up-to-date links to Middle Eastern media sources, as well as a special page on the current conflict in Afghanistan

The Arab World in the Classroom: Who Are the Arabs?
This article and classroom resource guide is located on the website of the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University

Human Rights Watch report: No Safe Refuge: The Impact of the September 11 Attacks on Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Migrants in the Afghanistan Region and Worldwide

The Middle East Research and Information Project website has extensive background information on the Middle East, including primers on the US military intervention in Afghanistan

Teaching Tolerance’s Cultural Geography: A Tour of Central Asia and the Middle East is an interactive guide to the region, with maps, fact sheets, and historical information.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is the official UN agency working to support the needs of an estimated 22 million refugees around the world. The site has regular updates on the refugee crisis in Afghanistan.

The United States and Middle East: Why Do “They” Hate Us? an article by Stephen Shalom, originally published in Z Magazine

The World Food Project is the United Nations agency working to combat hunger in the world, and has updates on the food shortage in the Central Asian region, as well as other regions

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(Jump to Immigrant Victims of the World Trade Center Attack)

US and Mexico to Resume Talks on Immigration Policy: Issue Will Be Recast as One of National Security; Daschle, Gephardt to Meet With President Fox
By Mary Jordan and Kevin Sullivan
Washington Post November 15, 2001
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31315-2001Nov14.html
MEXICO CITY, Nov. 14 -- Mexican and U.S. officials are relaunching talks on immigration reform that stalled after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, recasting the issue more as a matter of national security in light of Washington's new priorities.

Detention, Treatment, and Trial of Certain Non-Citizens in the War Against Terrorism: Statement by George W. Bush
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27339-2001Nov14.html
Presidential address describing new policies to detain non-citizens

Bush to Subject Terrorism Suspects to Military Trials
By ELISABETH BUMILLER and DAVID JOHNSTON
New York Times November 14, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/14/national/14DETA.html
WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 - President Bush signed an order today allowing special military tribunals to try foreigners charged with terrorism. A senior administration official said that any such trials would "not necessarily" be public and that the American tribunals might operate in Pakistan and Afghanistan

US Wants to Talk to 5,000 Foreigners About Attacks
By REUTERS November 13, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-attack-investigation-list.html
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government has compiled a list of more than 5,000 foreign men living in the United States it wants to question about the Sept. 11 attacks, officials said on Tuesday. Justice Department spokeswoman Mindy Tucker said the department is circulating the list, drawn up with the help of the State Department and the Immigration and Naturalization Service, to the 94 U.S. attorneys' offices around the country.

American Sikhs Contend They Have Become a Focus of Profiling at Airports
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
New York Times November 10, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/10/national/10SIKH.html?searchpv=past7days
Dr. Jasjit S. Ahluwalia had just attended a research conference about carcinogens in tobacco and was racing to catch a plane at the Minneapolis airport when he was stopped by a member of the National Guard.

U.S. to stop issuing detention tallies Justice Dept. to share number in federal custody, INS arrests
By Amy Goldstein and Dan Eggen
The Washington Post, November 9, 2001, pg. A16
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64308-2001Nov8.html
The Justice Department announced yesterday it will no longer issue a running tally of the number of people detained around the country as law enforcement officials investigate the Sept. 11 hijackings and try to prevent further terrorist attacks. An official said the department will instead provide two, smaller pieces of information about its campaign of detentions -- identifying how many people are being held on charges of violating immigration laws and how many are in federal custody.

Immigrant data bill criticized
By Cassio Furtado
The Miami Herald, November 8, 2001
http://www.miami.com/herald/content/news/national/digdocs/100825.htm
WASHINGTON -- Immigration advocates on Wednesday criticized proposed legislation to keep better track of foreign students and other visitors who have overstayed their visas, saying federal authorities should concentrate instead on improving intelligence abroad to reduce terrorist acts at home.

Splitting of INS proposed
By Sergio Bustos
Gannett News Service The Arizona Republic, November 7, 2001
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/breaking/1107ins07.html
WASHINGTON -- The embattled Immigration and Naturalization Service soon could be broken into two agencies with different missions. That's what two key lawmakers, Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., and Rep. George Gekas, R-Pa., proposed Tuesday when they introduced a bill in the House to overhaul the INS.

Rival measures address immigration, terrorism issues Feinstein, Kennedy bills have similar goals but differing approaches
By Dena Bunis
The Orange County Register, November 3, 2001
http://www.ocregister.com/sitearchives/2001/11/3/news/immig01103cci.shtml WASHINGTON -- Better sharing of information among intelligence agencies and more scrutiny of student visas are the common proposals in a set of competing Senate bills on immigration and terrorism introduced late this week.

Refugees at America's door find it closed after attacks
By Somini Sengupta
The New York Times, October 29, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/29/nyregion/29REFU.html
As many as 20,000 refugees from across the world, cleared to come to the United States to escape persecution in their homelands, have had their arrival here delayed indefinitely in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

Turning to citizenship for safety
By Jack Chang
Contra Costa (Calif.) Times, October 29, 2001
http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/california/stories/immigrant_20011029.htm
Immigrants have seen the signs of trouble before, and they are getting ready. In Washington, legislators decry the free flow of immigrants across U.S. borders. Around the country, non-citizens find their civil rights rolled back. Newspaper opinion pages spill over with letters voicing suspicion of immigrants and distrust of foreigners.

INS urging release of detainees
By Wayne Parry
The Associated Press, October 27, 2001
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20011027/aponline072256_000.htm
PATERSON, N.J. –– Immigration and Naturalization Service officials told representatives of area Muslim communities that they would try to speed up the release of people arrested by the government after the terrorist attacks once the FBI clears them of criminal involvement. The meeting Friday followed the death of Muhammed Rafiq Butt, who was arrested Sept. 19 as part of the FBI's investigation into the terrorist attacks and cleared of involvement.

Rep. Issa: I was profiling victim
By Mark Sherman
The Associated Press, October 26, 2001
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20011026/aponline175845_000.htm
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Rep. Darrell Issa, grandson of Lebanese immigrants, says he was the victim of racial profiling when he tried to board an Air France flight to Paris this month.

This is no time for hate
By Jodi Rave Lee
The Lincoln (Neb.) Journal Star, October 26, 2001
http://www.journalstar.com/native?story_id=105&date
The people being targeted stand innocent, held guilty nonetheless for their religious, cultural and ethnic differences. But let it not be forgotten, they are residents and citizens of this country.
 

Service Layoffs Hit Immigrants Hard
By Deborah Kong
The Associated Press, October 23, 2001
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20011023/aponline150226_000.htm
SAN JOSE, Calif. –– For years, Carlos Bolanos rose at 2 a.m. and drove to a downtown hotel to bake the croissants, muffins and coffee cakes that overnight guests enjoyed at breakfast. But Bolanos reported to work one day this month and was told to turn in his locker key and uniform: Business had slowed since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and Bolanos, who worked his way up to become the hotel's head baker, was out of a job.

U.S. moves to tighten security on borders
In wake of terrorist attacks, Congress and INS are changing their priorities
By Mary Beth Sheridan
The Washington Post, October 18, 2001, pg. A8
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12020-2001Oct17.html
Congress and federal agencies are moving to strengthen border security in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, with steps such as new technology to identify arriving foreign visitors and a planned tripling of guards on the Canadian border.

Immigrants' hopes for legal status dashed by Sept. 11
Movement to tighten U.S. borders replaces efforts to ease restrictions
By Martin Kasindorf
USA Today, October 18, 2001
http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20011018/3548819s.htm
LOS ANGELES -- Barely a month ago, Jose Luis Romero exulted over prospects that he'd soon have what he calls papeles -- government papers transforming him from an illegal immigrant to an authorized U.S. resident.

Lawyers see potential abuse of visa laws to hold suspected terrorists
By Seth Stern
The Christian Science Monitor, October 18, 2001
http://www.csmonitor.com/2001/1018/p18s2-usju.html
Eliot Ness wasn't really concerned about tax evasion when he nabbed gangster Al Capone, and today's FBI hasn't developed a sudden interest in foreigners overstaying their visas.
But visa violations are proving to be the easiest way for investigators to detain people wanted for questioning related to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Concerns rise of civil rights being ignored
By Judy Peres
The Chicago Tribune, October 16, 2001
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0110160281oct16.story
In law enforcement's zeal to find those responsible for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, some legal experts fear, the basic rights of some innocent people are being trampled.

Tech-visa workers feel heat
By Jon Swartz
USA Today, October 16, 2001
http://www.usatoday.com/money/covers/2001-10-17-bcovwed.htm
SAN FRANCISCO -- Rajiv Dabhadkar was three blocks from his New Jersey home on Oct. 2 when police motioned his car to the side of the road. Dabhadkar, a computer programmer from India here on an H-1B visa, was handcuffed and held in jail for several hours. When released, he was fined $250 for an unpaid parking ticket.

Mexican immigrants face new set of fears
By Sam Dillon
The New York Times, October 15, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/15/national/15IMMI.html
DENVER -- The whole nation has been anxious this past month, but for millions of Mexican immigrants around the country there have been added fears.

Attacks Alter Politics, Shift Focus of Immigration Debate
Washington Post, October 14, 2001
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59389-2001Oct14.html
The recent terrorist attacks have radically altered the immigration debate, replacing an agenda of amnesty with proposals to remilitarize U.S. borders, severely limit student visas and increase tracking of foreigners on American soil.

Abusing Witness Detention
By Robyn E. Blumner
St. Petersburg Times; Oct 14, 2001
http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/sptimes/index.html
Cynthia Orr, Al-Hazmi's San Antonio-based attorney, said that other than a few-minute phone call to her client when he was first picked up, Al-Hazmi was denied access to a lawyer for six days. During that time, Orr said, she literally couldn't find him. The government refused to tell her where it had taken him. (Is this sounding vaguely like a dirty war in Argentina?) Meanwhile, the FBI repeatedly tried to question Al-Hazmi outside her presence.

U.S. proposes to triple number of border agents
By Peter Morton
National Post (Canada), October 10, 2001
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/world/story.html?f=/stories/20011010/728252.html
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Congress plans to triple the number of immigration and customs agents along the U.S.-Canada border because of increasing concerns terrorists are slipping into Canada before heading to the United States. An anti-terrorism bill that is to be voted on this week would earmark U.S. $609-million to protecting the 6,440-kilometre border with increased technology and boosting the number of customs agents to 5,319 from 1,723. The number of border agents would triple to 900.

Immigration rights now take back seat
By Edward Hegstrom
The Houston Chronicle, October 9, 2001
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/page1/1083218
Mexican President Vicente Fox, the man who once advocated open borders, came to Washington recently to assure Americans that border security is now his priority numero uno. Like most people in Washington, Fox seems to recognize that the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 brought a sudden and dramatic shift in the way this country looks at the politics of immigration.

Legal residency hopes of millions dashed
By James Sterngold
The New York Times, October 7, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/07/national/07IMMI.html
LOS ANGELES -- In the summer, a bolt of hope shot through this city as the Bush administration edged toward granting legal residency to millions of illegal immigrants from Mexico and perhaps other countries.

Detained Under A Veil of Secrecy
By Steve Chambers
The N.J. Star-Ledger, October 6, 2001
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/page1/ledger/14a0507.html
The investigation Sousan Achou, past her due date and living in a Jersey City apartment without gas or electricity, doesn't know when her husband is coming home.

Attorneys say INS detainees are denied bail
By John Chadwick
The Bergen (N.J.) Record, October 5, 2001
http://www.bergen.com/news/detainjc20010053.htm
Some of the immigrants rounded up following the Sept. 11 terror attacks have been incarcerated without bail on minor immigration violations, their lawyers said Thursday.

INS freezes thousands of immigration applications
Knight Ridder Newspapers
The Arizona Republic, October 3, 2001
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/breaking/1003ins-ON.html
The Immigration and Naturalization Service has temporarily frozen potentially hundreds of thousands of immigration applications and visa petitions from those living in the United States while it conducts a national audit of immigrant applicants and assigns a bar code to every one.

Farm workers afraid to stay, or to leave
By Bart Jones
Newsday, October 2, 2001
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-lifarm022395266oct02.story
Before the World Trade Center attack, Oscar Arnulfo Rojo envisioned working in Farmingville for years as a day laborer to support his family in Mexico. That plan vanished Friday when he walked into a travel agency and bought an airline ticket to Mexico City, one-way. "This may be the No. 1 country in the world, but I don't feel safe because of what happened," Rojo, 28, a father of three, said in Spanish.

Border security debate gets hot
Lines are drawn between safety and civil liberties
By Jeremy Schwartz
The Corpus Christi (Tx.) Caller-Times, September 30, 2001
http://www.caller.com/2001/september/30/today/localnew/13129.html
For some, changes in border security proposed since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks are a common-sense response to threats from abroad, a necessary adjustment to a porous border under attack. For others, they are a step toward stripping immigrants of legal rights and a dangerous militarization of the nation's borders.

House OKs plan to put soldiers back along border
By Diana Washington Valdez
El Paso Times, September 27, 2001
http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/borderland/20010927-140583.shtml
A militarized border and proposed greater powers for U.S. immigration officials are two of the latest measures taken in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the nation.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted 242-173 Tuesday night for an amendment by U.S. Rep. Jim Traficant, D-Ohio, that authorizes the use of the military to help at the border with drug-interdiction and counter-terrorism activities.

Tightening Immigration Raises Civil Liberties Flag and Defense
By Jonathan Peterson and Patrick J. McDonnell
Los Angeles Times, September 23, 2001
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-092301immig.story
WASHINGTON -- Amid an outpouring of national unity, some members of Congress have quietly begun to resist the administration's tough new security measures aimed at noncitizens, voicing particular concerns about jailing even permanent legal immigrants without charge for indefinite periods.

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Immigrant Victims of World Trade Center Attack

Day Laborers at Ground Zero Say They Are Not Being Paid
October 19, 2001
By Somini Sengupta
New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/19/nyregion/19WORK.html?searchpv=nytToday
The state attorney general’s office is investigating complaints that day laborers hired to clear debris from office buildings surrounding the site of the World Trade Center have not been paid, some of them for up to two weeks of work.

Immigrants still lagging on aid: Language a major barrier
By Mae M. Cheng
Newsday, October 13, 2001
http://www.newsday.com/news/printedition/ny-nyfam132413682oct13.story
Jackson Chin went to the World Trade Center family assistance center in downtown Manhattan one day this week simply to observe whether immigrants were provided the emergency benefits they are entitled to. Instead, he ended up providing Chinese interpretation services for five different cases.

INS boss tells immigrants to seek WTC aid
By Mae M. Cheng
Newsday<, October 6, 2001
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-ins06.story
The head of the federal immigration service appeared in New York City Friday to reassure immigrants — both legal and undocumented — to come forward to receive emergency services if they or their family are victims of the World Trade Center terrorist attacks.

Undocumented Mexican workers lost in NY, too Worried families rely on Spanish-language media to follow story
By Dianne Solis
The Dallas Morning News, September 21, 2001
http://www.dallasnews.com/attack_on_america/stories/476342_spanishmedia_2.html
Among those who perished in the inferno at the World Trade Center were numerous Mexican immigrants ­ many of them undocumented. And they may very well have stayed that way were it not for the Spanish-language media, which moved in quickly to fill a much-needed niche.

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