|
National
Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
Immigrant Rights Groups Fear Domestic War Will Escalate Against Immigrants and Refugees as Homeland Security Department takes over Immigration Controls See List of Regional Contacts below available for media interviews
Feb. 27, 2003 – Oakland, CA Immigrant and refugee rights groups are sounding a warning about the dangers posed to the rights of immigrants, refugees, and communities of color as immigration law enforcement and services become part of the new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on March 1.
Members of a working group on enforcement and justice issues convened by the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR) cautioned that the imminent war on Iraq and the DHS’s integration of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) portends a dangerous escalation of the domestic war on the rights of immigrants, refugees, and communities of color, increasing militarism and racism against these communities.
Catherine Tactaquin, NNIRR Director, declared, “Without effective oversight and accountability to our communities, the Homeland Security Department will further undermine the civil liberties and human rights of our communities. Stopping the war abroad means upholding our communities’ rights to peace, justice, and safety at home.”
Not since World War II has such massive government reorganization taken place in the name of “domestic security.” The DHS merger of some 22 agencies, including the INS, will create the largest standing armed force in the country. DHS will have 70,000 armed agents for border and interior immigration enforcement.
Isabel García, co-chair of the Tucson, AZ-based human rights group, Coalición de Derechos Humanos, warned, “The Homeland Security Department’s focus and massive armed force will further militarize the U.S.-Mexico border, resulting in more migrant deaths and rampant human rights violations. Border militarization has been devastating. It does not address the causes of migration and does not protect migrants or border communities.” Before the September 11 attacks enhanced border enforcement strategies had already claimed the lives of over 2,200 migrants between 1994 and 2001.
Money for Services not Militarization
Nationwide, immigrant rights and racial justice groups are wary that “domestic security” is a code word for escalating surveillance and militarization of our communities at the expense of much needed social services for millions of low income and working people from immigrant and non-immigrant communities. While the budget for the U.S. war on Iraq may cost some $100 billion dollars, community health clinics are closing for lack of funds.
Jane Sung E Bai, head of New York City’s racial justice group, CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities, explained: “These funding priorities fueling the ‘war on terrorism’ subject communities of color, immigrants, and refugees to criminalization, greater incarceration, and abhorrent social conditions fostering despair.”
President Bush’s FY 2004 budget of $2.23 trillion dollars (half of which is dedicated to the military) devotes more than $18 billion for DHS’s Border and Transportation Security, with only $1.8 billion for all of the DHS’s Citizenship and Immigration Services provided.
“This 9 to 1 ratio reflects the heavy priority enforcement will have over service provision in the new Department. What’s most alarming is service providing reflects only a 15% increase since FY 2002, $1.8 billion, while police enforcement and militarization have increased 100% since FY 2002 – to $18 billion. Our nation cannot afford this shifting of priorities at the expense of hurting the very people it’s supposed to protect,” said Hamid Khan of the South Asian Network in Los Angeles.
The working group has observed that immigrants, people of color, and low income and working people throughout the last two decades have been devastated by federal and local budget priorities that have severely slashed funds for education, housing, health care and social services while dramatically increasing military spending, policing, and prisons.
Education, job training, employment, livable wages, safe working conditions, and family unification – as a result of 9/11 deportations and arrests – have decreased, while health problems, workplace injuries, homelessness, discrimination, and police brutality has increased.
Stopping the War Abroad means Stopping the Domestic War on Immigrant Rights
The Department of Justice’s “Special Registration” program, that currently targets males 16 years and older from over 25 Arab, Asian, and African countries, who are predominantly Muslim, evidences the devastating effects of the Bush Administration’s enforcement policies on immigrant and refugee families and communities of color. Under the guise of national security, “special registration” is the most recent example where considerable funds and resources have been expended on the illegal racial profiling of immigrant and refugee communities.
Namita Chad, an organizer with DRUM: Desi’s Rising Up & Moving in New York City, denounced the continuing 9/11 arrests, detentions, and disappearances, “Members of our community are fleeing to Canada fearing for their lives and freedom. The threat of war against Iraq and the new DHS immigration control does not make us secure.” Ms. Chad asserted, “Peace and justice can only be achieved by stopping the war abroad and stopping Bush’s war on the rights of our communities.”
“It is more urgent than ever that we tell the Bush administration that the peaceful and safe solution for ‘national security’ is working with the people, not against its best interests,” declared Heba Nimr of INS Watch in San Francisco, a group that monitors and mobilizes against immigration law enforcement abuses. Ms. Nimr ended by saying, “Expanded surveillance and punitive measures will only build mistrust and be counterproductive to protect our nation. Working directly with the people in a foundation of dignity and respect for equal access to quality jobs, education, health care, and housing will improve the lives of all our families!”
NNIRR’s working group members propose that a stable and secure United States will ultimately come not from expanded police surveillance and punitive measures or war abroad, but from building thriving communities based on dignity and respect, and with universal access to livable wages, education, housing and the means to keep families together.
Arnoldo García, who coordinates the NNIRR’s enforcement work, concluded by saying, “Immigration, the rights of immigrants and refugees, and immigrant and refugee communities are being scapegoated as threats to national security. Nothing could be farther from the truth. It is the U.S.-led war drive which undermines peace and security at home and abroad. We have to stop both wars; that is the only way to peace, security, justice, and equality.”
Susan Alva, Coalition for
Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), (213) 353-1339 The National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights Formed in 1986, the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR) is dedicated to working for the promotion and protection of the rights of all immigrants and refugees, regardless of their immigration status. NNIRR is composed of local coalitions and immigrant, refugee, community, religious, civil rights and labor organizations, organizers, and activists in the U.S. ###
|