“In the past two years, our nation has experienced one of the worst anti-immigrant Administrations in the history of our country.  From increased detention and deportation, mandatory registration that mostly targets Arabs and Muslims, worsening services and short-circuited appeals process, immigrants are subjected daily to the public policy attacks of the Bush Administration,” Schakowsky said.

“It is counterproductive to target law abiding immigrants in the name of fighting terrorism at a time when we should be working together to ensure our national security,” Schakowsky added.

Schakowsky released the “Hit List” of the top ten anti-immigrant Bush Administration policies and proposals that she and others will work to reverse:

1. New secretly adopted police powers for the FBI
2. Detaining immigrants without due process
3. Civil liberties infringement
4. Rounding up and registering Arabs and Muslims
5. Short-circuited appeals process for immigration cases
6. Worse immigration customer services  
7. Decrease in refugee admissions
8. Less protection for women victims of violence seeking asylum
9. Additional layers of bureaucracy 
10. Automated systems replacing real people

“As a first generation American who was raised in Chicago, a city that embraces its immigrants and has been enriched by their contributions, I join millions from across our country to say to President Bush: Your war on immigrants is Un-American,” Schakowsky said.

Schakowsky was joined by representatives and leaders of various immigrant communities in Chicago including Fred Tsao, Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights; Yaser Tabbara, Midwest Immigrant and Human Rights Center; R.S. Rajan, Executive Director, Indo-American Center; Dori Dinsmore, Executive Director, World Relief; Shaukat Sindhu, Chairman, Pakistani American Association of America; and Jose Manuel Ventura from Centro Romero.

1. New secretly adopted police powers for FBI – The Attorney General secretly issued an order, without public notice or congressional review, granting FBI agents the authority to enforce immigration laws.  This order eliminates the separation between civil immigration enforcement and law enforcement which has always existed in order to create trust in communities that all people, citizens and immigrants, would be protected by law enforcement agents from crime.  One major consequence of this new rule will be to compromise our national security because immigrants will be hesitant to go to federal law enforcement with a tip or information.  In addition, this new power could also result in countless infractions of immigrants’ rights because FBI agents lack training in immigration law enforcement.  

2. Detaining immigrants without due process – Since 9/11, the Department of Justice has made it routine practice to detain immigrants and visitors in custody for unspecified periods of time, sometimes without charging them with any offense, and often denying them access to counsel and other due process rights.  Often, immigration authorities refuse to release the names of detainees to their families or other advocates.  It is also common practice for detainees to be denied open hearings, and instead have them conducted behind closed doors to exclude family and the press.  These practices violate a fundamental principle of our judicial system – that no person should be subjected to arrest and imprisonment without reason, explanation, and due process of law.  

3. Abridging Civil Liberties – The PATRIOT Act, signed into law in October 2001, provides for mandatory detention of any immigrants who the Attorney General suspects have engaged in terrorist activity and very broadly defines terrorist activity for the purposes of both prohibiting immigration to the U.S. and increasing the number of deportations.  Earlier this year, a proposal known as the Domestic Security Enhancement Act, or the “PATRIOT Act II,” was leaked from the Department of Justice.  This proposal would increase penalties for common immigration violations and allow for deportation of any immigrant, including a lawful permanent resident, without any hearing or judicial review.  In addition, this proposal would make it legal to strip any person, including native-born Americans, of his or her citizenship if he or she gave a charitable contribution to an organization deemed to have terrorist links, even if the person were unaware that any link existed.

4. Rounding Up and Registering Arabs and Muslims – The Attorney General established a “special registration call-in” program as part of the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS).  This program requires all males over 16 years old from mostly Middle Eastern countries who are not American citizens or lawful permanent residents (e.g. those here on student visas, H1-B visas, visitors) to register with immigration officials.  This not only targets and profiles specific communities based on geography and religion, but it has been implemented in a misguided and haphazard fashion.  Instead of identifying terrorists, some immigration offices have used special registration to identify and detain people who are on the path to permanent residence, but who may have immigration problems because their paperwork has been neglected by immigration officials.  This has resulted in hundreds of nonimmigrants who are trying to comply with the law to be thrown in jail.   In addition, the Department of Justice has failed to fully publicize the program requirements and has not given the INS, now the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS), enough staff, resources, or guidance necessary to do the job.  As a result, regular immigration functions have been neglected, which has contributed to increased delays and backlogs of other immigration applications.  

Furthermore, when leaving the U.S., those registered must depart through one of 99 ports of departure.  If they leave through an undesignated port or fail to “sign out” at the designated place at the designated port, they can be barred for life from ever returning to the U.S.

The next registration deadline approaching is Friday, April 25 for all male citizens and nationals from the fourth group of countries to be designated, Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, and Kuwait.

5. Appeal process short-circuited – In an effort to streamline the Board of Immigration Appeals, which is the court of last resort for immigrants fighting deportation, the Administration decided to institute one-judge reviews of cases (instead of three judges) and reduced the Board from 23 judges to 11 judges.  Immigrants now get one-line responses to their cases.  In other words, their cases can be summarily dismissed and they can be deported, with little or no explanation as to why.  In a one-year period, the rate of rejected appeals skyrocketed by 46%, from 59% to 86%. 

6. Worse Service – The structure of the Department of Homeland Security immigration functions, which splits the functions among multiple Bureaus, has led to a lack of coordination.  This, along with enhanced security measures since 9/11, has caused immigrants and visitors to experience worse service, long delays, and a culture of “no.”

7. Decrease in refugee admissions – President Bush set the refugee admissions level for FY 2003 at 70,000, the same number as FY 2002, despite the fact that only 30,000 refugees were actually admitted in FY 2002.  This ignores the realities in the world and the needs of thousands who are being persecuted worldwide.

8. Less protection for women victims of violence– The Attorney General is considering issuing new regulations that would limit the ability of women fleeing trafficking, sexual slavery, honor killing, domestic violence, and other gender-related human rights abuses to qualify for asylum in the United States.  This would make it more difficult for a woman to flee to the U.S. in order to get away from gender-based violence that her government is doing nothing to stop or prevent.   

9. Additional layers of bureaucracy – The Attorney General issued a rule clarifying an immigrant’s obligation to provide the INS, now the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS) in the Department of Homeland Security, with his or her change of address within 10 days.  This has created a huge amount of paperwork backlogs at the BCIS, and often the BCIS does not even connect the information that they receive to the immigrant’s file.  Yet, if an immigrant fails to issue the address change within ten days or if the BCIS misplaces or loses an immigrant’s paperwork, the immigrant is deemed to have committed a criminal violation and risks deportation.  

10. Automated systems replacing real people – The Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS) is moving forward with implementing a 1-800 number for people to call to get immigration case information, instead of being able to speak with a person at the immigration Service Center as is current practice.  This could drastically limit an immigrant or visitor, as well as an immigration attorney or advocate, from being able to obtain needed information about a case in a timely manner.