If you're not interested in dangerous trends in the US regarding personal
liberties, just delete. This is not a usual xmca message.
JAY.
Otherwise, have you encountered any news reports yet about either mass
detentions of Islamic immigrants (men only) in Southern California and
elsewhere in the US in the last week? or about a mass protest by families
of detained men and teenagers in Los Angeles today?
I just encountered this as a major story on BBC online news, but saw no
trace of it in CNN online. It has been carried by Reuters today and
evidently just in the last few hours by ABC news online.
These URLs don't always work, so I append the main text of two stories, one
on the protests and one on the detentions.
I do not believe this is part of a systematic internment plan, but it does
seem to be one more indicator that it may be time for people in this
country to start getting worried about the attitude of our current
government to everyone's human rights, especially as they continue to push
for a war that will give them an excuse to go even further. Nothing in the
record of men like John Ashcroft gives confidence there will not be
escalating abuses. The Afghan detentions in Guantanamo were already
extra-legal and there is no evidence they are justified. The registration
and detention by the INS in this new case is extra-ordinarily
discriminatory on its face (only males, down to the age of 16, and only
those from certain countries) and is based on a 1996 law that had no
relation to present conditions. Perhaps we should start now to imagine how
anti-war protesters will be treated by this government several months from
now... and whether any of us will be among them ........
BBC World News -- Americas
Thursday, 19 December, 2002, 11:37 GMT
Mass arrests of Muslims in LA http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2589317.stm
US immigration officials in Southern California have detained hundreds of
Iranians and other Muslim men who turned up to register under residence
laws brought in as part of the anti-terror drive.
Reports say between 500 and 700 men were arrested in and around Los Angeles
after they complied with an order to register by 16 December.
The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) is refusing to say how
many people were arrested but said detainees were being held for suspected
visa violations and other offences.
The arrests sparked angry protests in Los Angeles by thousands of
Iranian-Americans waving banners which read "What's next? Concentration
camps?" and "Free our fathers, brothers, husbands and sons".
Official radio in Iran also reported the arrests and the protests, which it
said were mounted by families of the detainees who converged on Los Angeles.
Deadline
Under the new US immigration rules, all male immigrants aged 16 and over
from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan and Syria had to register with authorities by
Monday unless they had been naturalised as citizens. Immigrants from other
mainly Muslim states have been set later deadlines for registration.
Community groups said men had been arrested in Los Angeles and nearby
Orange County as well as San Diego.
California is home to about 600,000 Iranians who have been living in exile
since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
One of the Iranian-American demonstrators in Los Angeles, Ali Bozorgmehr,
told the French news agency AFP that his community was being targeted unjustly.
"All Iranians that live in America are hard-working people... They love
this country and all... are against terrorism," he said.
'Shocking'
Ramona Ripston, executive director of the Southern California chapter of
the American Civil Liberties Union, said the arrests were reminiscent of
the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.
"I think it is shocking what is happening," she said.
"We are getting a lot of telephone calls from people. We are hearing that
people went down wanting to co-operate and then they were detained."
Islamic community leaders said many detainees had been living, working and
paying taxes in the US for up to a decade and had families there.
"Terrorists most likely wouldn't come to the INS to register," said Sabiha
Khan of the Southern California chapter of the Council on American Islamic
Relations.
She said the detainees were "being treated as criminals, and that really
goes against American ideals of fairness, and justice and democracy".
REGISTRATION ORDER
Introduced after 11 September attacks
Affects all males over 16 from a list of Arab or Mid-East countries who do
not have permanent resident status in the US
A 10 January deadline will affect men from Afghanistan, Lebanon, Eritrea,
North Korea, Somalia, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen
Calif. Muslims Detained in Crowded, Cold Centers
Thu December 19, 2002 06:02 PM ET
By Jill Serjeant
http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=1939069
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Hundreds of Muslim men and boys are being subjected
to strip searches in freezing, standing room only detention centers in
southern California after being arrested for routine visa irregularities,
immigration lawyers said on Thursday.
They estimated that between 1,000 and 2,500 males, some as young as 16,
were spending their fourth day locked up in what they called inhumane
conditions after voluntarily presenting themselves at immigration offices
to register under new anti-terrorism rules.
"The situation in the detention centers is absolutely horrifying. In one
center, they were ordered to strip down and given a strip search. They were
only given a prison jumpsuit, without any underwear, T-shirts, socks or
shoes. They were not given blankets. They are freezing," Iranian-American
lawyer Sohelia Jonoubi told Reuters.
Justice Department officials in Washington, breaking an almost week-long
silence on the arrests, said 227 people had been detained in California for
overstaying their visas under a post-Sept. 11 program that requires men
over 16, without permanent residence status, from 20 Arab or Muslim
countries to register with authorities.
But the official figures differed widely from anecdotal evidence from
families in the Los Angeles area who reported that scores of husbands,
brothers and fathers had spent most of this week locked up and treated like
criminals.
"These people are being held in inhumane conditions...We don't know how
many. We have estimated anywhere between 1,000 to 2,500 detained in
southern California. The INS in Los Angeles is overworked, overwhelmed and
doing everything they can (but) these people were not prepared to handle
it," Iranian-American Lawyers Association spokesman Kayhan Shakib told
Reuters.
A TRAP?
Most of those detained were Iranians living in Los Angeles County and
neighboring Orange County, which in the past 20 years have become home to
some 600,000 Iranian exiles.
Lawyers battling to get the men released on bail said many were law-abiding
immigrants who were in the process of getting U.S. green cards under a
lengthy and complex INS procedure.
"These people came to the INS centers voluntarily. They are not flight
risks. They were led to believe it was routine registration and now this is
the biggest trap I have ever seen," Jonoubi said.
Some 3,000 people staged a peaceful protest in Los Angeles on Wednesday as
hundreds more waited for hours to get their relatives released on bail from
overwhelmed INS officials. Some protesters carried banners reading: "What's
Next? Concentration camps?"
Community lawyers have been refused access to the detainees who they say
are being shuttled round various detention centers in prison buses,
shackled and in handcuffs, as the system creaks under the strain.
Families, allowed telephone access to their relatives, reported that the
men were forced to sleep standing up, or on concrete floors with no
blankets, and some had been hosed down with cold water. Drinking water is
said to be scarce and in some cases, detainees must use toilets without
doors or walls.
The relatives said that some detainees have been told they will be deported
without seeing their relatives again. Others are trying to get out on bail
pending a hearing before an immigration judge which could take days or weeks.
BASIC NEEDS
INS spokesman Francisco Arcaute said he was confident the INS could deal
with the situation, adding; "They have access to telephones, they have
access to restrooms, they are given snacks. We understand there has been a
bit of crowding, but my understanding is that we are meeting basic needs."
The southern California chapter of the ACLU said the detentions were
"reminiscent of what happened in the past with Japanese-Americans" during
World War II. Shakib told Reuters that after talks with the INS, officials
had promised to try to process the detainees more speedily and get more of
them out on bail. He said only 20 or 30 had been bailed out as of
Wednesday. The Justice Department insisted about 100 people were still
being held.
Activists said they expected more demonstrations in coming days. "The
Iranian community is not going to sit and not respond to this outrage,"
said Jonoubi, a Los Angeles resident for 15 years and now a U.S. citizen.
"I cannot believe that I lived to see the day that such human rights
violations occur in the United States of America in the 21st century."
---------------------------
JAY L. LEMKE
Educational Studies
University of Michigan
610 East University
Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USA
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jaylemke
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