SAN FRANCISCO – In letters sent to the University of California Police Departments and members of the Joint Terrorism Task Forces in Northern California, civil rights and community organizations are calling the federal government’s latest plan to question and monitor Iraqi immigrants, Iraqi-Americans, and others a “troubling and counterproductive manifestation of racial profiling.” The letters warn that the monitoring aspects of the program “threaten to violate California’s precious constitutional right to privacy.”

On November 17, the New York Times reported that the federal government has begun a program of tracking, monitoring, and questioning thousands of Iraqi immigrants, Iraqi-Americans, and possibly other individuals of Middle Eastern origin. One senior government official told the New York Times that it is the “largest and most aggressive program we’ve ever had.” The program includes the Pentagon, the Central Intelligence Agency, the immigration service, the State Department and the National Security Agency.

"This new program is dangerous because individuals are being targeted for questioning and surveillance based on their ethnicity and not because they have done anything wrong,” said Mark Schlosberg, police practices policy director with the ACLU of Northern California (ACLU-NC).

“As with the previous FBI questioning of first 5,000 and then 3,000 individuals from the Middle East and South Asia, this discriminatory questioning practice is ineffective and causes fear in the targeted communities,” added Jayashri Srikantiah, staff attorney with the ACLU-NC.

The National Lawyers Guild, the ACLU-NC, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, the San Francisco Chapter of the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee and the Council on American Islamic Relations sent the letters to law enforcement agencies, campus police at UC Berkeley, USF, and UC Davis and the Joint Terrorism Task Forces in Northern California.

The letters urge university police and local law enforcement to “take a strong stand against such discriminatory federal programs by declining to participate in this latest round of questioning and monitoring.” In the two previous rounds of FBI questioning, several Northern California Police and Sheriff’s Departments declined to participate, including police in San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland, the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Department and others. This latest round appears to also be targeting colleges and universities.

The civil rights groups are also distributing an informational bulletin in English and Arabic that tells individuals how to respond when the FBI, INS, or police contact them for questioning. The bulletin is online at www.aclunc.org/911/bulletin.html In addition, individuals targeted for questioning can call a free, confidential hotline for legal advice at (415)-285-1055.

“By yet again targeting Arabs and Arab Americans for questioning, the federal government continues to contribute to the climate of scapegoating,” said Heba Nimr of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, San Francisco Chapter. “Such scapegoating generates fear in our communities—but in the face of such fear, we should always remember to assert our civil rights and dignity.”

“We urge individuals targeted for law enforcement interviews to call our hotline if they have any questions or need legal assistance,” said Riva Enteen, with the National Lawyers Guild.

The ACLU is offering free “Know Your Rights” brochures in Arabic, English, Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi and Spanish to inform individuals about their rights if they are stopped or arrested by the police, the FBI, the INS or Customs Agents. Free copies of the bulletin or brochure are available by calling the ACLU of Northern California at 415-621-2493.