July 26, 2012

Last week, MPAC participated in a round-table discussion with LA community leaders, the Department of Homeland Security and United States Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) about the new Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) act that was passed last June and the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties’ (CRCL) role in reviewing Intelligence Programs and Products. 

A panel of public officials led initially by District Director Phyllis Coven started things off by reading the qualifications to be eligible for DACA, as of now, USCIS is not accepting applications. An important note was a warning for all individuals who are eligible for DACA, not to apply to the program yet. 

The second part of the DHS roundtable was led by the Director for CRCL David Gersten. His stated goal in addressing the roundtable was to a dispel myths about the intelligence community within the government. He couched his work as central to national security. Following his presentation Aziza Hasan, MPAC’s Southern California Government Relations Director, asked what CRCL was doing to establish a redress system for people whose names make it into shared-space intelligence files, especially in cases of having the same name as someone on a watch list. 

In response, Gersten encouraged individuals who are concerned that their name appear in shared intelligence files to approach their local fusion center under the sunshine laws, U.S. federal and state laws requiring regulatory authorities' meetings, decisions and records to be made available to the public, and ask if his/her name is on a list of concern. He also reiterated the importance of information gathering at the stake of national security, stating if suspicious behavior is detected, “We will be watching.”