Dear Editor,

As members of a national coalition to support the February 20th National Day of Solidarity with Muslim, Arab, and South Asian Immigrants, we were disturbed to hear about the "Absconder Apprehension Initiative.� This latest plan from the Justice Department and the INS to gradually round up 314,000 immigrants is an egregious attack on civil liberties, the foundation of this democracy. The fact that this sweep is first targeting thousands of Middle-eastern men is in itself a prime example of a racist hysteria, a climate which has already led to hundreds of hate crimes throughout the country. We feel that the tragic events of September 11 and the current economic crisis facing this country are an excuse to scapegoat the most vulnerable section of our society, those thousands of undocumented workers who are simply trying to survive in industries that thrive on their cheap labor. As history has shown us all too often, these attacks on civil liberties will spread to broad sections of the population - students, artists, activists, and professionals.

Already, over 1500 Arab, South Asian, and Muslim immigrants have been detained indefinitely, and the government refuses to say who they are, where they are jailed, and what their charges are. It is difficult now to find someone in the New York Muslim, South Asian, and Arab community who does not know of someone who has disappeared, been arrested under outrageous circumstances, or been victim of a random hate crime. Uzma Naheed, a Pakistani immigrant, searched for her husband for a month and a half before finding him at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. For another three months she tried to get visitation rights for herself and her son. Now the entire family has gotten deportation orders. His charges? He was a licensed hazardous materials truck driver, and he declined to work a shift on September 11. They have found nothing on him since.

Officials recently painted the windows of the Metropolitan Detention Center, cutting off the only view to the outside world for at least 70 detainees. This action came shortly after a few advocates started staging weekly demonstrations outside the center. Detainees at this center are being held under bright lights 24 hours a day, shackled on the rare occasions that they are allowed to leave their cell, and subject to frequent body searches.

Many detention centers have not allowed any form of legal aid. The FBI has admitted that most of these detainees have no more than minor visa violations and have no connection to the September 11th attacks or any other terrorist activities. We must remember the lessons of history: the Salem Witch Trials, the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, the hundreds of careers and lives ruined by the McCarthy era hysteria, and the Japanese American Internment during World War II. The Commission of Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians revealed in its 1982 report that the internment of 120,000 Japanese Americans was "not justified by military necessity" and a result of "prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership"

And remember this quote:

"The government will make use of these powers only insofar as they are essential for carrying out vitally necessary measures ... The number of cases in which an internal necessity exists for having recourse to such a law is in itself a limited one."

This is what Hitler told the German Reichstag upon the Enactment of the Enabling Act on March 23, 1933. The Enabling Act severely curtailed civil liberties in Germany and allowed the arrest and detention of thousands, at first. The rest, as they say, is history.

Coco Dasgupta
Nafas Hussein
Tom Winburn
February 20 Coalition in Solidarity with Muslim, Arab, and South Asian Immigrants