An Agenda To Restore Civil Liberties

Since the terrible attacks of September 11, we have seen a steady assault on fundamental liberties that has served only to make us less free, and not more secure. After September 11, 2001, unfair enforcement of immigration and related laws has caused great hardship in immigrant and ethnic minority communities. After the passage of the Patriot Act and the secret detentions of hundreds of Arabs and Muslims with no connection to terrorism, a wide range of civil liberties and civil rights organizations came together as part of a growing national movement to develop proposals to address some of these concerns. The following are the most immediately necessary steps that need to be taken.

A. Respect the First Amendment and restore basic due process for those jailed by the government.

Hundreds of Arab and Muslim immigrants who had no connection to terrorism were secretly arrested and detained for weeks and months after 9/11 The Department of Justice Inspector General report confirmed that: many were held for prolonged periods without being charged; the Justice Department adopted a policy of denying bond to every one without any evidence of terrorism connections or risk of flight; many were denied access to a lawyer; and many held in inhumane conditions, sometimes beaten by prison guards. The Attorney General ordered all the deportation hearings for these individuals held in secret.

End secret arrests and secret trials:

1. Release the names of those arrested in secret two years ago; and
2. End the government’s ability to issue a blanket order closing all deportation hearings and thus cover up its misconduct.

Provide minimum due process to individuals who are jailed on immigration charges by giving them a hearing and assuring their access to a lawyer:

1. Assure that individuals detained on immigration charges are told the charges against them within 48 hours and informed of their right to hire a lawyer;
2. Assure that they are given the right to a fair bond hearing; and
3. Establish an immigration court independent of the Attorney General to assure fair hearings.

B. Stop the Targeting of Immigrants instead of Terrorists.

As the San Jose Mercury News editorialized: Since 9/11, “the administration has embarked on a sweeping crackdown that has turned law-abiding immigrants into suspects. Thousands have been caught in a dragnet of arrests, forced interviews and deportations that have upended their lives, and torn apart their families and their communities.” (Mercury News Sept. 11, 2003)

1. End the selective enforcement of the immigration laws based on religion against the 13,000 people now in deportation proceedings as a result of their compliance with new registration requirements.
2. End the selective registration programs based on religion or national origin.
3. Eliminate draconian penalties for violations of technical registration requirements under the immigration laws; civil monetary penalties are the fair and appropriate way to assure compliance.
4. Assure that the notoriously inaccurate INS databases are not included in the FBI’s database of wanted criminals available to all local and state police.

C. Protect Privacy and Ensure Constitutional Limits on Secret Surveillance.

1. Protect privacy rights by limiting the secret seizure of private databases and individual records to those records that pertain to a suspected terrorist or terrorist group. The Patriot Act amended the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to enable the government to secretly seize all private databases, including library, medical and credit card records, without any showing of a relationship to a suspected terrorist or to terrorist or criminal activity.
2. Protect basic due process by providing those persons who have been the target of FISA surveillance and are subsequently charged with a crime the same access to FISA surveillance information as defendants have to any classified information. The Patriot Act also amended FISA to permit secret surveillance to be used more extensively in criminal, as opposed to foreign intelligence, investigations.
   

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© 2003 Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union