Racial profiling of South Asians and people of Muslim or Arab descent, has taken on new dimensions, according to the New York Advisory Committee (NYAC) to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR), an independent, bipartisan agency of the federal government.

In its report submitted recently to USCCR, the NYAC asserts that while it was necessary for the government to take some steps to counter terrorist threats after 9-11, “some actions have adversely affected the civil rights of immigrants and nonimmigrants,

particularly members of Muslim, Arab and South Asian communities.”

The policies of particular concern are the federal government’s expanded authority to detain nonimmigrants without charge, to hold detainees with no possibility of release on bond, and, when final deportation orders have been issued, to subject detainees to prolonged confinement, the NYAC asserts.

But, the authors of the report claim, “Beyond law enforcement acts of racial profiling related to drug prevention and street crime, racial profiling has taken on new dimensions targeting Muslims, Arabs and South Asians regarding business license violations, financial transactions abroad, and international travel at airports.”

Other policies of concern are the federal government’s Call-In Special Registration program and sharing of national databases on immigration status with state and local police.

The NYAC recommends establishing a viable system to ensure accurate race and ethnicity data to monitor profiling; investigating allegations of racial and ethnic profiling promptly; advises law enforcement agencies to develop ongoing outreach programs to minority communities; that the Call-In Special Registration

Program not be renewed; and that a fully independent oversight body outside the Homeland Security Department be created to report and monitor the civil rights impact of implementing security measures.

New York has more than 400,000 undocumented immigrants, who, according to the report, are most adversely affected by special registration requirements.

Pakistani families living in New York were drastically affected, being put in a Catch-22 situation. “If they register, they may be detained for violating immigration law. If they do not register, they are breaking the law and become deportable.”

Of the 82,000 men nationwide who underwent special registration, about 13,400 –– or approximately 16 percent –– face deportation, according to the report’s data.

“Only a few of these men are suspected to have links with terrorism,” it adds, conceding that “those most likely to comply with special registration are honest individuals.” Many left the country to go back to their homeland, or elsewhere out of fear, and “on some blocks of certain New York City neighborhoods many shops are boarded up and abandoned by families not willing to risk perceived negative repercussions of special registration,” says

the report.

It noted how many had left for Canada seeking asylum. “The Pakistani community was particularly hard hit,” it concedes.

Canadian immigration authorities reported that 2,000 Pakistanis entered Canada between January and March 2003 –– comparable to the entire year of 2002, and many more were waiting in the wings.

Equating some of the actions taken by U.S. law enforcement agencies to the post-World War II racial profiling of Japanese Americans and pre-9/11 profiling of African Americans and Hispanic Americans, the report to the USCCR notes that: “There

is a perception that local law enforcement authorities did

not take seriously the complaints of Muslim, Arab and South Asian residents who were subjected to hate crimes in acts

of misplaced retaliation for the events of Sept. 11.” This has been an issue in the taxi industry, where many drivers are South Asian in origin.

“In the immediate months following 9/11, South Asian taxi drivers found themselves particularly vulnerable to attacks and in need of police protection,” NYAC points out.

The federal Call-In Special Registration program requiring male nationals 16 years and older from predominantly Muslim countries to register is seen by some as a form of racial profiling, targeting Muslims, Arabs and South Asians. The program ceased after nationals from predominantly Muslim countries had registered.

“In New York City, implementation of the Call-In Special Registration program was marked by a lack of community education on the program’s requirements, excessive processing times lasting 14 hours or more, lack of sufficiently trained interviewers and translators, and inconsistent application of policies,” asserts NYAC.

“Persons required to undergo special registration in New York City were deprived of the right to counsel while interrogated by the investigations unit of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (formerly the Immigration and Naturalization Service), when they were most vulnerable,” complains the report, and “if registrants were placed in detention, families were not informed of their whereabouts.”

The report warned that the federal government’s sharing of immigration data bases with state and local police would “undermine effective law enforcement,” because undocumented immigrants may not report crimes or suspicious behavior and community policing and crime prevention may suffer.

The creation of joint terrorism task forces allowing for greater cooperation and the sharing of information between federal and local law enforcement authorities and the recent elimination of civilian oversight on local police surveillance of political organizations, are some of the other law enforcement regulations that “pose a threat to civil rights and civil liberties, especially within New York’s Muslim, Arab and South Asian communities. These programs may be counter-productive. They fuel distrust of law enforcement authorities among many members of affected communities, hinder local reporting of crimes, and diminish the cooperation between local police and community members necessary to identify and thwart future terrorists.”

On the positive side, it was clear to the NYAC that racial profiling laws were not generally popular. “Despite its persistence and heightened prevalence after 9/11, racial profiling remains far from universally accepted as a valid law enforcement technique,” it emphasizes.

“Like the internment of Japanese-origin persons living in the United States during World War II, the post-9/11 practice of profiling and differentially treating Muslim, Arab and South Asian men living in the United States is a form of prejudice and an outward manifestation and consequence of stereotyping,” the report declares, adding that, “moreover, profiling is an ineffective law enforcement tool.”