NEW YORK —The U.S. government’s aggressive use of the
immigration system in its counterterrorism efforts discriminates against
Muslims and violates international human rights law, said the Center for Human
Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ) at NYU School of Law and the Asian American
Legal and Education Defense Fund (AALDEF) as they released a Briefing Paper on
the issue this week.  The briefing paper, “Under the Radar: Muslims
Deported, Detained, and Denied on Unsubstantiated Terrorism Allegations,”
exposes the many ways in which U.S. officials take advantage of the lax
standards and lack of transparency that mark the immigration system as
particularly ripe for abuse.

“The U.S. government is deporting, detaining, and
denying benefits to Muslim immigrants on the basis of innuendo, religious and
cultural affiliations, or political beliefs,” said CHRGJ Faculty Director,
Smita Narula. “These practices violate fundamental human rights and
American values and have had profoundly devastating impacts on Muslim families
and communities in the United States.”

The briefing paper includes a number of case studies that
suggest extremely problematic patterns of the U.S. government’s targeting of
Muslims through the immigration system.  The briefing paper details how
the U.S. government is:

• Making unsubstantiated terrorism-related allegations
against Muslim immigrants without bringing official charges in cases involving
ordinary immigration violations.

• Subjecting Muslim immigrants to detention in cases
involving minor violations that, ordinarily, do not entail detention.

• Imposing flimsy immigration charges—such as false
statement charges for failure to disclose tenuous ties to Muslim charitable
organizations—in a manner that targets Muslim immigrants for religious and
political activities and affiliations.

• Applying overbroad statutory language of the
terrorism bar provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) to
remove, bar, and detain Muslims.

• Relying on vulnerable immigration status to coerce
Muslim immigrants to become informants for federal law enforcement officials.

“President Obama recently reiterated that the U.S. is
not at war with Islam.  However, we have a long way to go before Muslim
immigrants are treated with the fairness and dignity that is owed to all
immigrant communities in the United States,” said Sameer Ahmed, AALDEF
Attorney/Skadden Fellow.  “It is time for our government to live up
to its rhetoric and make needed reforms to the immigration system in order to
prevent these widespread abuses.”

The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund
(AALDEF), founded in 1974, is a national organization that protects and
promotes the civil rights of Asian Americans.  By combining litigation,
advocacy, education, and organizing, AALDEF works with Asian American
communities across the country to secure human rights for all.  AALDEF
focuses on critical issues affecting Asian Americans, including immigrant rights,
civic participation and voting rights, economic justice for workers, language
access to services, Census policy, affirmative action, youth rights and
educational equity, housing and environmental justice, and the elimination of
anti-Asian violence, police misconduct, and human trafficking.  AALDEF has
a 21-person staff, including 11 lawyers. We are assisted by over 300
volunteers, including pro bono attorneys, community workers, and students.
AALDEF receives financial support from foundations, corporations, individual
contributions and special fundraising events. AALDEF receives no government
funds.

The Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ) at
New York University School of Law was established in 2002 to bring together the
law school’s teaching, research, clinical, internship, and publishing
activities around issues of international human rights law.