This footage is from the protest in front of the INS building that took place from noon to 1pm at 444 Washington Street in San Francisco on June 13, 2003.

Speaker: Jayashri Srikantiah, Staff Attorney
Organization: American Civil Liberties Union

Jayashri Srikantiah in San Francisco (Small - 11 MB)
Audio - Jayashri Srikantiah in San Francisco (MP3 - 4 MB)

Jayashri Srikantiah, Staff Attorney, ACLU

(Excerpt) Right after September 11th, President Bush and Congress expressed solidarity with Arab, Muslim and South Asian communities and warned against singling out members of those communities for the actions of terrorists. Unfortunately, the government's actions stand in sharp contrast to its words.

The latest round of deportations announced by the government is only the most recent example of the Federal Government's practice of ethnic skapegoating and stereotyping. What the governement is doing is targeting particular nationalities for aggressive enforcement of immigration law. What the government is doing is targeting "immigrants" instead of targeting "terrorists."

The latest round of deportation follows other discriminatory policies including targeting of South Asian, Muslim and Arab communities for questioning, lengthy and secret detentions, secret deportations and other activities...

For immigrant communities, the promise of "due process of law" has been eroded. Even the government's own reports recognize the government's own discriminatory and shameful detention and deportation policies...

The government must stop targeting innocent people based on their ethnicity and religion. The government must stop disrupting the lives of thousands of innocent immigrant families. The government must stop equating "immigrants" with "terrorists."

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