National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
310
8th Street, Suite 303 * Oakland, CA 94607 * (510) 465-1984 * (510)
465-1885 fax *www.nnirr.org
For immediate release For
More Information, contact:
December 17, 2001 Arnoldo
Garcia or Eunice Cho
510-465-1984
x 305 or x 303
***PRESS RELEASE***PRESS
RELEASE***
National Immigrant Rights Community Responds to
Anti-Immigrant Backlash in Wake of September 11
Immigrants celebrate the UN’s International Day of Solidarity with Migrants on December 18, 2001
December
18, 2001: In the wake of heightened attacks against immigrants since the events
of September 11, over thirty-five immigrant, civil and human rights
organizations around the country signed onto a national statement specifically
addressing the growing attacks against immigrant families and communities.
These groups declared their shared support for a re-examination of
anti-immigrant legislation in the first collective national statement to
specifically address growing attacks against immigrant communities.
“Since
September 11, racism against immigrants has increased. Portrayed as threats to
national security, immigrant communities and families face growing instances of
hate violence, racial profiling, and harassment by law enforcement and the
general public,” said Catherine Tactaquin, Director of the National Network for
Immigrant and Refugee Rights. The collective statement criticized the Bush
Administration’s policy of detention and interrogation based on racial
profiling of Arabs, Muslims, Middle Eastern, and South Asian people in
violation of their basic civil and human rights. In addition, the groups
highlighted the administration’s obligation to address the growing number of
refugees caused by military involvement in Afghanistan, in light of tightened
immigration and refugee policies around the world.
The
statement was released in celebration of the United Nations’ second
International Day of Solidarity with Migrants, and in conjunction with migrant
rights’ activities around the globe. December 18 was designated by the United
Nations as an official day to call upon countries to ratify the International
Convention on the Rights of Migrants and Members of Their Families. The United
States has not signed this Convention.
Press
conferences will be conducted in New York, NY and Oakland, CA on December 18.
Local events will also be held in Tucson, AZ, Los Angeles, CA and Santa Fe, NM.
(Please see below for a more details.)
The
National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights is a national organization
composed of local coalitions and immigrant, refugee, community, religious, and
civil rights and labor organizations and activists. The Network works to
promote a just immigration and refugee policy in the United States and to
defend and expand the rights of all immigrants and refugees, regardless of
immigration status.
[END]
For more information about regional events, please contact
the following:
New
York, NY: Press Conference: World Trade Center Survivors Mark International
Migrant Rights’ Day, December 18, 2001,
10:00 AM, 101 Avenue of the Americas. Contact: Joel Magallan,
Asociacion Tepeyac, 212-633-7108 and Saul Nieves, SEIU 32B-J, 212-388-2172
Oakland,
CA: Press Conference: December 18, 2001, 11:00 AM, 1301 Clay St., Oakland Federal Building. Contact:
Heba Nimr, INS Watch, (415) 553-3427 and Arnoldo Garcia, National Network for
Immigrant and Refugee Rights, (510) 465-1984
Contact: Jennifer Allen, South West
Alliance to Resist Militarization (SWARM), (520) 320-9436
Contact:
Marcela
Diaz, Somos Un Pueblo Unido, (505) 424-7832