Geoff Boyce (center) from the activist group No More Deaths speaks at the Northern Borders conference.

DEARBORN — According to immigrants’ rights activists, the number of cases being reported involving the profiling of Muslims at the Canada-U.S. border has seen a significant decrease. 

Immigration activists from around the country gathered in Detroit this week for the Northern Borders Coalition (NBC) Immigrants Rights Conference. It was held Tuesday at the United Auto Workers Ford National Training Center. 

The event, entitled “From North to South: Civil Rights Along the Border”, highlighted the issue of profiling at the Canada-United States border. 

Over the last few years several Arab and Muslim Americans from Dearborn and other parts of metro Detroit have complained about being profiled at the border. In 2012, the Council on American Islamic Relations of Michigan filed a lawsuit against the FBI and CBP on behalf of Muslims over the repeated detention and questioning of their faith. The case is in court and being presided over by Avern Cohn, the senior judge for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. 

Dawud Walid, the executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations of Michigan (CAIR-MI), and Ryan Bates, the executive director of Michigan United, both say that while the number of cases being reported about the profiling of Muslim Americans at the Canada-U.S. border has decreased, it is still an issue. 

Bates said apprehensions and deportations have decreased by 61 percent in recent years. He credits that to the work immigrants’ rights groups have done over the years. He also said immigrants’ rights activists are fighting on behalf of people being placed on the U.S. No Fly List without reasonable explanation, another major issue. Last month CAIR-MI filed a federal lawsuit based on the number of Muslims being placed on the No Fly List. In addition, the Arab American Civil Rights League has filed lawsuits on behalf of several Muslim Americans who were placed on the list without any explanation or criminal background. 

Speaking at the event, CAIR-MI staff attorney Lena Masri said the problem with the No Fly List is the disproportionate number of Muslims and people who have Arabic names that are on it. 

Bates said there has been a lot of improvement in limiting Border Patrol agents from acting as translators for local law enforcement officials.  He said Border Patrol agents have been used by law enforcement officials in Dearborn, Taylor and the River Rouge.  

“I think we have made a tremendous amount of progress, but it is still not satisfactory,” he said. 

According to the NBC, Border Patrol agents have shot and killed 19 people along the border in the past few years, 10 of whom were U.S. citizens. The NBC says racial and religious profiling continues— families are regularly detained at the border simply because they are Muslim and residents of border areas must live with checkpoints and warrant-less searches and arrests. During the conference participants discussed the reality on the ground in the north and south and built concrete organizing strategies to address them. 

Geoff Boyce of the Arizona group, No More Deaths, said he is worried about the high number of Border Patrol agents in communities and their cooperation with police. He said the number of agents in many communities should be reduced.

“There is no lawful justification for the size of the agency,” Boyce said. 

According to Boyce,  the issue of family separation and deportation has garnered a lot of attention, but what isn’t discussed enough is the violent experiences people have while trying to cross the border from Mexico into the U.S.

“People go through a extreme crossing experience that involves violence, organized crime as well as authorities from Mexico and the United States,” he said.