DEARBORN — Congress of Arab American Organizations (CAAO) representatives met on Thursday at a BRIDGES meeting to discuss with law enforcement officials new travel requirements and allegations of FBI agents sending informants into community mosques.

Arab American community leaders meet with federal law enforcement officials on Thursday in Dearborn.

BRIDGES, which stands for Building Respect in Diverse Groups to Enhance Sensitivity, allows leaders of community organizations to discuss civil rights concerns with members of local, state and federal governments.
Although much time was spent applauding President Barack Obama’s address to the Muslim world, concerns of bias and civil rights were quickly highlighted, particularly when discussing a new program to scan the fingerprints of international travelers departing the United States from Detroit and Atlanta.

According to a representative of the U.S. Customs and Border Control (CBP), the program targets non-citizens, specifically non-immigrant visa holders. But it is up to on-duty officer’s as to who will be detained.

Community leaders present were concerned about the level of authority being given to individual officers under the new program. According to the current policy for the program, an officer can pick up a non-immigrant visa holder and detain and question him/her for hours.

The CBP representative took note of the concerns and made it clear the policy is part of a pilot program to see if such a method could be implemented smoothly and effectively.

Dawud Walid, director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Michigan, spoke on allegations of community members being approached by the FBI to become informants in their local mosques.

“This is to raise your awareness of sentiments in the community,” Walid said.

He added that members reported being asked to be informants without any probable cause to investigate their mosque. According to Walid, the Michigan office has been receiving complaints about this for two years.

“It’s making people wary of people coming into the mosque,” Walid said after the meeting. “Some are wary of giving to charity or worried that they will be implicated somehow.

“We’ve had people tell us over the years they were questioned by law enforcement about their charitable donations to certain organizations.”

FBI Special Agent Andrew Arena agreed that such allegations were causing problems within the Muslim community. Yet he said he hasn’t received any formal allegations.

“There is a lot of distrust in the community and that troubles me,” Arena said. “There are a lot of people using this distrust for their own gain.”

Arena is concerned about individuals posing as agents in order to take advantage of people in the Muslim community. But he does not exclude the possibility of real FBI agents illegally sending informants into mosque.

“Is there the possibility of rogue agents? Yes. And I want to know about it,” he said to those present at the meeting, encouraging them to report any illegal activity.

“The thing I am looking to do is get into the community on the base level more,” Arena said.