Mr. Chair,

I speak on behalf of the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and the US Human Rights Network.

We would like to draw your attention to the escalating institutionalized human rights violations by the US government against its migrant communities, under the pretext of combating terrorism.

While we condemn the atrocities of September 11th 2001, we resolutely denounce the resulting abusive and discriminatory US migration enforcement policies and practices that are unfairly targeting us migrants and our families.

In the name of fighting terrorism, military-style policing and criminalization of targeted communities in the US through wide-scale detentions and deportations are tearing apart families and communities.

A Special Registration program requiring men from Muslim countries to register with immigration authorities resulted in more than 13,000 people being detained and placed in deportation proceedings after they complied with it. Most of those detained were awaiting pending residency applications. Not a single one has ever been charged with any connection to terrorist activities.

Thousands of other Arabs and Muslims have fled the US in fear of detention and deportation – leaving many Arab and Muslim families torn apart and economically devastated by having lost their sole breadwinner.

A US repatriation agreement forced upon Cambodia has led to over 1,500 people being deported to a country they left with their families decades ago as child refugees. Most don’t speak Khmer and have no current connections there, but are torn away from their families in the US. For instance, 24 year old Borom Chea is facing deportation to Cambodia, which he left when he was 4 years old, with vague memories of killing fiends, slave camps and starvation. While his family in California is fighting to have him released, it seems almost inevitable that Borom might spend the rest of his life in a Cambodian prison camp. Similar agreements are being pursued with Laos, Vietnam, Nigeria, Somalia and Iran, despite the knowledge that deportees face grave dangers or death there.

Stepped up militarization at US borders under the guise of “defending the homeland against potential terrorists”, has caused more rights violations and migrant deaths.

Special “operations” deployed teams of Border Patrol agents that rely on racial profiling of citizens and non-citizens based on superficial perceptions of appearance or language skills -- forcing desperate migrants to take even greater risks. As a result, last year saw a record number of border deaths, with almost 1,000 dead on the US/Mexico border alone.

This targeting of the border fuels attacks against migrants by paramilitary vigilante groups who “hunt down” migrants at gunpoint with armored vehicles and spy planes. Despite the suspicion that they are murdering border-crossing migrants, the U.S. government encourages their existence by commending and even copying them.

The inclusion of immigration functions under the new US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has significantly expanded its policing and incarceration powers, making it by far the largest law enforcement agency in the US. Despite this, the government claims that to successfully fight terrorism, it will also need to rely on coordinated efforts with local police.

Last November, when the Flores Noyola family, who had lived in California for generations, went on a shopping trip to the local mall, the security there detained them while investigating a shoplifting. Although someone else was eventually charged with the crime, the family was turned over to local police, who turned them over to the Border Patrol. As a result, 2 elderly members of the family were deported to Mexico.

Public safety is also severely threatened if local police are even perceived to be enforcers of immigration law. Non-citizens who are crime victims or witnesses refuse to cooperate with local police out of fear of being arrested and deported. Migrant women who are victims of domestic abuse or sexual violence are unwilling to come forward to report these crimes for fear of deportation.

It is therefore imperative that this Commission establishes a new mechanism to monitor and analyse the impact of terrorism-combating measures undertaken by states like the US, upon human rights and migrant rights.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.