NEW YORK: In a sign of emerging opposition to the detention of immigrants since Sept. 11, over 200 people from diverse backgrounds rallied outside the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) building in Manhattan on Feb. 20 to mark a ‘National Day of Solidarity with Muslim, Arab and South Asian immigrants.’
The rally was endorsed by a variety of organizations, including Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM), South Asians Against Police Brutality, New York; Asian American Legal Defense Fund; Black Radical Congress, New York Metro,; American Civil Liberties Union of Texas and Queers for Racial and Economic Justice, New York.
“Since the first protest against detentions by the INS on Martin Luther King Day, the momentum to release the detainees has increased” Monami Maulik, a community organizer with DRUM, told News India-Times. “Initially, we saw people in the affected communities (South Asians, Arabs) who knew the horrors of what was going on coming to protest. But now the awareness has spread among mainstream American society and there are weekly protests being held with members of many different communities outside the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn for the last month or so.”
At the charged and emotional rally outside the colossal gray building of the INS in lower Manhattan, people held signs declaring: “Human lives are more important than inhuman laws,” “Say no to racial profiling,” and “Immigrants are under attack.”
Speakers stood at the back of a flatbed truck. There was a varied group of speakers including Saikou Diallo, father of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed West African immigrant who was killed in the Bronx by four police officers about three years ago. “We will not forget those who died in the name of hatred and we will not close our eyes while more people are detained or imprisoned unfairly,” said Diallo.
A particularly touching moment was when Harris Anser, a young boy whose father has been detained for over four months, spoke haltingly to the crowd. “First, I want to say thank you for coming out,” said Anser, who is of Pakistani origin. “George Bush is an immigrant too. I don’t know why they’re holding Arabs and Muslims. Osama bin Laden attacked us on Sept. 11. But that doesn’t mean my dad is a terrorist.” His father, Anser Mehmood, a truck driver who had overstayed his visa limit, has been detained since October. His mother, Uzma Naheed, one of the more outspoken family members of detainees, also spoke at the rally. “Not only have we been suffering here about this situation but relatives too are suffering back in Pakistan,” said Naheed.
“They were charged with crimes they didn’t commit. They’re innocent. Maybe this government will realize it one day. One day they will see that what they did was wrong. Our families come here to live in peace,” she said.
Other speakers at the rally included Janet Yip, the daughter of Japanese internment survivors, Mahmoud Ramadan of the Palestine Aid Society and Miguel Maldonado of the Immigrants Workers Association.
Attempting to link the detention of immigrants to larger racial issues in the world, people spoke of the internment of the Japanese after World War II, the condition of the Palestinian people and the extermination of Jews during Hitler’s era.
Holding up a huge red banner proclaiming “National Day of Solidarity with Muslim, Arab and South Asian immigrants,” the protesters marched from the Federal Plaza in lower Manhattan to Washington Square Park.
After the Sept. 11 terror attacks, the authorities started detaining immigrants they believed were potential terrorists or had links with terrorists. DRUM claims that the FBI and INS have detained 1,400-1,600 immigrants, mainly of South Asian and Arab origin. Of the total, DRUM alleges that about 50-60 percent are of Pakistani origin.
The U.S. Patriot Act, which was signed on Oct. 26, 2001, gave the government a wide range of powers, including detention of noncitizens suspected to be terrorists without any reasonable evidence, said Neil Weinrib, an immigration lawyer.
