April 17, 2012

Chairman Durbin, Ranking Member Graham and members of the Subcommittee:  I am honored to submit this testimony for the record on behalf of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) regarding today’s hearing on racial profiling. We commend the members of the Subcommittee for holding today’s hearing, “Ending Racial Profiling in America.”

MPAC is a faith based American institution working for the integration of Muslims into American pluralism. To that end, we actively strive to affect policy reforms that uphold core American values and preserve Constitutionally protected freedoms of all Americans. We have done extensive work on ending racial profiling in America. Our position has always been and will continue to be that we are against any and all forms of racial profiling. Any aspect of racial profiling or singling out of minority communities, such as the American Muslim community for scrutiny, is a violation of the Department of Justice’s 2003 Guidelines on Racial Profiling. Racial profiling drastically undermines any trust between law enforcement and local communities.     

We thank you for holding this critical and timely hearing on racial profiling and the End Racial Profiling Act. MPAC is particularly concerned about many policies and programs at the national, state and local level which encourage or incentivize discriminatory law enforcement practices such as racial profiling. We believe that these practices are counterproductive, waste public resources and violate the civil and human rights of persons living in the United States.

Racial profiling occurs whenever law enforcement agents use race, religion, ethnicity, or national origin as a factor in deciding whom they should investigate, arrest or detain, except where these characteristics are part of a specific suspect description. Singling people out on the basis of their race, ethnicity, religion, national origin or perceived citizenship or immigration status is in direct breach of the founding principles of this country. Regardless of whether it takes place under the guise of the war on drugs, immigration enforcement, or counterterrorism efforts, racial profiling is always wrong. Moreover, the practice diverts precious law enforcement resources away from smart, targeted, behavior-based investigations.  

Racial Profiling in Our Communities

American Muslims are neither villains nor victims with respect to our political circumstances. They are like any other American group, reaffirming America as home, committed to defending our country against any policy that seeks to weaken the pillars of equality that founded our nation. Like other citizens and organizations, MPAC is concerned with policies that utilize racial profiling as a means to address national security issues. One such piece of legislation is SB 1070 in Arizona which allows local and state law enforcement officers to enforce administrative immigration law in a blatantly discriminatory way by having officers assess and determine the immigration status of people based simply on suspicion.

American Muslims can certainly sympathize with Latino Americans that are affected by this racially motivated bill. Under the pretext of national security and immigration, American Muslims have already been subject to widespread ethnic and religious profiling. During the 2004 Presidential electoral race, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) initiated Operation Front Line, where over 2,000 people from Muslim-majority countries were arrested. No one was ever convicted on national security violation or terrorism charges.

More recently, reports of the New York Police Department’s (NYPD) counterterrorism efforts were released highlighting their surveillance into American Muslim communities simply based on their faith. Muslim students and their organizations were also spied on by the NYPD in a gross violation and abuse of power. Colleges and universities in the northeast region of the country were affected by the NYPD’s surveillance programs on American Muslims.

In fact, policies that target specific communities based on race, ethnicity or religion do more harm than good. In a report released by South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT), 73% respondents of Americans of South Asian descent living in New York reported being questioned about their national origin and 66% reported being questioned about their religious affiliation in their interactions with law enforcement. Such suspicion only leads to a lack of trust between minority and law enforcement communities.

Evidence has proven that when communities work as partners with law enforcement, positive results happen. For example, according to MPAC’s Post 9/11 Terrorism Database, Muslim communities have helped U.S. security officials to prevent nearly 2 out of every 5 al-Qaeda related plots threatening our nation since September 11, 2001. Rather than profiling the American Muslim community simply based on ethnicity or religion, building partnerships based on trust has proven to be beneficial for our nation.

Conclusion

The practice of racial profiling by federal, state and local law enforcement has resulted in a heightened fear of law enforcement in our community, as in many other communities of color throughout the United States.

MPAC is heartened by the Subcommittee’s leadership in holding this hearing and we are grateful for the opportunity to present our position on the unjust, ineffective and counterproductive practice of racial profiling. We urge the Committee to move swiftly and take concrete actions to prohibit racial profiling at the federal, state and local level:

• Congress should pass the “End Racial Profiling Act (S.1670)” and institute a federal ban on profiling based on race, religion, ethnicity and national origin at the federal, state and local levels.
• The Subcommittee should urge the Department of Justice to amend its 2003 Guidance Regarding the Use of Race by Federal Law Enforcement Agencies to apply to profiling based on religion and national origin, remove national and border security loopholes, cover law enforcement surveillance activities, apply to state and local law enforcement agencies acting in partnership with federal agencies or receiving federal funds, and make the guidance enforceable.

Thank you again for this opportunity to express the views of the Muslim Public Affairs Council. We welcome the opportunity for further dialogue and discussion about these important issues.