DEARBORN — As Arab American community organizations and activists grow more frustrated over the ineffectiveness of talks with federal leaders about systematic discrimination, they reached out to top Justice Department officials for a helping hand. 

On Wednesday, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch made a special appearance at a BRIDGES meeting at the Lebanese American Heritage Club. She discussed an interest in policy changes to balance national security with due process for individuals on the Terrorist Watch list. 

Building Respect in Diverse Groups to Enhance Sensitivity (BRIDGES) was established shortly after 9/11 to address security and civil rights grievances between the government and the community.

In 2014, a leaked FBI report by The Intercept falsely claimed that Dearborn had the second highest ratio of individuals with known or suspected terrorism ties, placing about 19,000 residents on the Terrorist Watch list and many on the No-Fly list.

Civil rights organizations and attorneys have gone to great lengths to correct the database, fighting to remove innocent individuals, including babies and a disabled man, who have no criminal or terrorism records.

At the event, U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D- Dearborn) had a simple message for Lynch: “We need a friend.”

Dingell told Lynch that many in Congress have no idea the Arab American community faces struggles of being wrongfully placed on the Terrorist Watch list; and that many lawmakers believe there is a method allowing for the removal of a name from the list through a relatively easy appeals process.

“The Justice Department is looking at how we balance national security, but we also have to protect individual civil liberties,” Dingell said. 

Lynch told BRIDGES attendees she’s already aware of the discrimination and issues the community faces with the watch lists. 

She also acknowledged that the No-Fly list and the apparently arbitrary closure of bank accounts contribute to a sense of alienation and frustration in the community, adding there needs to be a uniform and transparent solution.

“Those of us in the department who have been working on this list, we were disappointed within the past year when efforts to have a system and process for a review seemed to stall in Congress,” Lynch said. “It is only sad that with the issues of firearms that have come about that we have actually been able to put that back on the table.”

In recent years, the Arab American Civil Rights League (ACRL) has received many complaints from across the country about banks closing the accounts of longtime customers. There have been hundreds of such cases in Metro Detroit alone. On the same day as the BRIDGES meeting, a trial began involving a class action lawsuit against Bank of America.

Lynch also said that although the issue has garnered much attention in the Department of Justice (DOJ) in the past few months, finding a resolution is a long way ahead.

She lauded BRIDGES and said it’s well-known among her colleagues as an example of a community relations group many in the department seek to import to other communities. 

Nabih Ayad, founder of the ACRL, who co-chaired the meeting, told participants that the Arab American community faces setbacks that local and state law enforcement have frequently heard, but say are limited in their capacity to fix. 

“We are ground zero for bigotry and hate,” Ayad said.

Ayad urged Justice Department officials to make active efforts, as perceived indifference among victims undermines the “integrity and trust” law enforcement diligently works towards.

He added that harassment hampers individuals from investing in the region, many of whom wish to take part in Detroit’s revitalization. 

In recent years, certain DOJ divisions engaged in bolstering ties between communities and law enforcement have risen to prominence, as police and race-related tensions take national center stage. In Dearborn, these organizations are welcomed.

David Gelios, Detroit’s FBI special agent in charge, told The Arab American News his office employs three community outreach specialists, which strengthens federal and community understanding.

“That number surprises me, so I want to do a little research on that,” Gelios said about the 19,000 Dearborn residents on the watch list. He added that his office is responsible for a minority of individuals placed on the database.

“In our system, if someone is nominated to a watch list, it’s not a random nomination,” he said. “It’s a recommendation based on facts that have caused us to take an investigative look at an individual based on appropriate predication.”

Vanita Gupta, head of the DOJ’s civil rights division, which investigates and prosecutes civil liberty violations, said her division reports a rise in harassment at schools and work places and increasingly prosecutes more cases involving townships preventing mosques and other places of worship to be built in their communities.

She added that a measure is underway in the Justice Department to “look at what the due process concerns are.”

Paul Monteiro, director of community relations services at the DOJ, said his office strives to work with cities, police departments and schools in educating and training them on interacting with Arab, Muslim and Sikh Americans and their cultures. 

He said there has been an uptick in hate crimes targeting those minorities at schools nationwide in the past eight months. Monteiro said his office steps in when such issues arise to provide tools to communities to help find solutions on their own, before the DOJ has to prosecute offenders. One way is by focusing training on micro-aggressions or “things that don’t rise to the level of hate crime, but on a very regular basis, students or people in the community are told implicitly that they don’t belong or are not welcome.”

Mustapha Elturk, co-chair of the Michigan Muslim Community Council in Southeast Michigan, which represents about 30 local Imams, recounted a story of a new Muslim convert, a young man, who was recently not allowed to fly. The man was held at the airport and interrogated for hours.

Things like that may very well radicalize these individuals who we don’t want to radicalize, simply because of the behavior of the U.S. Government,” Elturk said.

He added that his daughter, an attorney who works for the State Department and travels to countries like Nigeria to speak about entrepreneurship in the U.S., recently discovered her name was on the Terrorist Watch list. 

The imam said his daughter is being “used and abused”, not able to trust her own government, as it does not trust her.