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Post-September 11 roundup
'backfired'
By Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON - Measures take by the US
administration against Arab and Muslim immigrants after
the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against New
York and the Pentagon have not only failed to protect US
security, but may have made it more vulnerable,
according to a major report recently released.
The roundup and detention of more than 1,200
immigrants after the attacks were particularly abusive,
says the report by the Washington-based Migration Policy
Institute (MPI) an influential think tank. It said that
the government's efforts to depict some of those who
were detained as terrorists were simply wrong. "The only
charges brought against them were actually for routine
immigration violations or ordinary crimes," concludes
the 165-page report, "America's Challenge: Domestic
Security, Civil Liberties and National Unity After
September 11".
"Many of the policies that have
been adopted in the wake of September 11 are an attempt
to use immigration as a proxy for anti-terrorism," said
Vincent Cannistraro, a former senior counter-terrorism
official in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), who
is on MPI's board of advisers and helped prepare the
report. "We haven't learned anything about pre-empting
terrorism in America, but we have intimidated,
antagonized and alienated many [minority] communities
[which is] counter-productive to what the FBI and other
agencies are trying to do," he added at the report's
release.
What breakthroughs have been made in
identifying and apprehending terrorists have been the
result of traditional police and intelligence work and
cooperation and information-sharing with foreign
intelligence agencies, not from any of the immigration
initiatives taken by the administration, says the
report, which also includes the most comprehensive
compilation of the individuals detained after September
11 and their experiences. "Arresting a large number of
non-citizens ... only gives the nation a false sense of
security," the document added.
The report is
likely to be taken seriously. The MPI's advisory board
members include the last two commissioners of the
Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS)- James
Ziglar, who just served in the current administration;
and Doris Meissner, INS head under former president Bill
Clinton. Meissner co-authored the report. In addition to
Cannistraro, it also includes Mary Jo White, who, as a
former US attorney in the southern federal district of
New York, gained a reputation as a tough and relentless
prosecutor in high-profile terrorism cases.
The
report also coincided with news that the Justice
Department's inspector general (IG) is investigating
possible abuses by federal prison guards in Brooklyn
against immigrants detained there. In a widely noted
report released last month, the IG found "significant
problems" in the way federal officials dealt with the
post-September 11 roundups. Dozens of detainees were
subject to verbal and physical abuse by guards at the
facility, where they were left to languish in "unduly
harsh" conditions for months, some without access to
family members or attorneys, it said.
The MPI
report, whose scope is broader than the plight of the
detainees, nonetheless "puts flesh on the bones of the
IG's report", according to David Cole, a Georgetown
University law professor who also contributed to the
document. It found, for example, that, unlike the
September 11 hijackers, the majority of those detained
had significant ties to the United States and roots in
their communities here. Of the detainees on which
relevant information was available, almost half had
lived in this country for at least six years and had
close family relationships here.
The report
examines the government's post-September 11 immigration
measures from three distinct perspectives - their
effectiveness in actually fighting terrorism; their
impact on civil liberties; and their effect on America's
sense of community as a nation of immigrants. In each
case, it concludes that the administration's policies
were largely counter-productive.
The key to
fighting terrorism, according to the report, is focusing
on improved intelligence, information and information
sharing; better and more targeted border protection;
vigorous intelligence-based law enforcement; and
engagement with Arab- and Muslim-American communities.
"'We believe it is possible to use immigration measures
more effectively to defend against terrorism, while also
protecting the fundamental liberties at the core of
American identity," Meissner said.
The latest
raids follow an established pattern in US history,
according to the report. During the McCarthy era in the
1950s, Congress enacted strong anti-immigration measures
while, during the "Red Scare" that followed World War
II, the attorney general at the time, A Mitchell Palmer,
ordered thousands of immigrants rounded up and detained
without due process.
During national security
crises, Washington has often followed "the course of
least resistance", according to Cole, who noted that
immigrants are particularly vulnerable to abuses at such
times. But the greatest harm to US anti-terrorist
efforts in this case has been the impact of the
administration's harsh measures on Arab and
Muslim-American communities says the report. Programs
such as requiring special registration by males from
certain countries carried out last year has discouraged
cooperation with law enforcement agencies, in part
because they became a vehicle for sweeping up those with
minor immigration violations.
At the same time,
the alienation and persecution felt by the same
communities immediately after September 11 have also had
the unintended effect over time of reaffirming their
identity as Muslims and Arabs in the United States,
according to Muzaffar Chishti, an MPI senior fellow and
co-author.
"The experience of Muslim and Arab
communities post-September 11 is, in many ways, an
impressive story of a community that first felt
intimidated, but has since started to assert its place
in the American body politic," he said.
But
Cannistraro stressed that the administration's
ham-handed attack on immigrant communities had also
taken a heavy toll on its image in the immigrants'
homelands overseas. "If anything, we have painted an
image of us as a narrow, biased society that really
believes in the clash of civilizations," he said,
singling out Attorney General John Ashcroft as
especially responsible. "It serves us poorly abroad, and
it has provided ammunition to some of the fiery imams
who encourage young people [to sacrifice] themselves."
(Inter Press Service)
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