Category Archives: Immigrant Roundups

Video and Audio Of Sydney Levy Of Jewish Voice For Peace At Friday 13 INS Protest

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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: Sydney Levy
Organization: Jewish Voice For Peace
Sydney Levy in San Francisco (Small – 10 MB)
Audio – Sydney Levy in San Francisco (MP3 – 3 MB)

Sydney Levy, Jewish Voice For Peace
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Video and Audio Of Father Louie Vitale At The INS Mass Deportation Protest

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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: Father Louie Vitale
Organization: Franciscian School Of Theology, St. Boniface Church in San Francisco
Father Louis Vitale, O.F.M. is a Lecturer in Spirituality and Practice of Nonviolence at the Franciscian School Of Theology. He is also a Pastor of St. Boniface Church in San Francisco.
Father Louie ended up serving some time in a Federal Prison in Georgia for committing acts of civil disobedience while protesting the School of the Americas (a U.S. terrorist training camp whose graduates are known for committing human rights violations).
Father Louie Vitale in San Francisco (Small – 24 MB)
Audio – Father Louie Vitale in San Francisco (MP3 – 7 MB)

Father Louie Vitale, Pastor of St. Boniface Church

(Excerpt) I just want to say to those of you who are from maybe my background — a Judeo-Christian tradition — If you want to honor the scriptures we have that talk about loving your neighbor and bearing one another’s burdens, then we better get off our duffs and do something, or put away our bibles and forget it.
We have to be outraged! And we have to get out and show our rage in non-violent and peaceful ways, and put a stop to this terrible, terrible racism that’s going on and the abuse and oppression that destroying families and simply destroying lives.

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Video and Audio Of Andrew Lichterman Of The People’s Non-violent Response Coalition

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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: Andrew Lichterman
Organization: The People’s Non-violent Response Coalition
Andrew Lichterman in San Francisco (Small – 20 MB)
Audio – Andrew Lichterman in San Francisco (MP3 – 8 MB)

Andrew Lichterman Of The People’s Non-violent Response Coalition
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Video and Audio Of Greg Marutani From The Japanese America Citizens League

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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: Greg Marutani
Organization: Japanese American Citizens League
Greg Marutani in San Francisco (Small – 12 MB)
Audio – Greg Marutani in San Francisco (MP3 – 4 MB)
Greg Marutani, Japanese American Citizens League

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Details About Friday 13, 2003 Protest Against the INS Special Registration Deportations

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I’ll be posting video from this tomorrow.
Muslim And Middle Eastern Men Targeted
By Jessie Mangaliman for the SJ Mercury News.

A number of Bay Area civil rights and immigrant advocacy groups rallied outside the federal immigration office in San Francisco on Friday to protest the pending deportation of more than 13,000 Muslim and Middle Eastern men found to be living illegally in the United States during a national security registration program.
“What the government is doing is targeting immigrants instead of targeting terrorists,” Jayashri Srikantiah, an attorney with the Northern California chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said to a group of about 50 people, across the street from the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, the former Immigration and Naturalization Service, in downtown San Francisco…
In all, more than 82,000 people registered. About 16 percent, or more than 13,000, were found in violation of their visas and placed in deportation proceedings, according to a government report issued last week.

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Emergency Protest This Friday 13th At San Francisco INS Building

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There’s an “emergency” protest going on tomorrow afternoon to protest the Shrub Administration’s deportation of over 13,000 muslim men who cooperated voluntarily with the INS Special Registration Program.
The news conference and rally afterwards is going on from 12pm (noon) – 1:30pm at the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) Building on 444 Washington Street (at Sansome) in San Francisco. Here’s a map of the location and a gif of that map, in case the mapquest link doesn’t work.
I’ll be there recording it so you’ll still be able to check it out if you can’t make it, but it’s very important to get as many people there as possible for this so please try to make it if you can.
See you there!
Here’s the official scoop (courtesy of an email I received from Refuse and Resist:

Civil rights and community organizations will hold a
news conference and demonstration outside the Immigration and
Naturalization Service (INS) offices in San Francisco on Friday, June
13. Following reports that 13,000 of the Arab and Muslim men who
voluntarily registered with the INS as part of the government’s
controversial Special Registration Program (NSEERS) will face
deportation, the groups are calling on the INS to halt the expulsions
of men from a list of mainly Arab and Muslim nations. The groups say
that the proposed deportations constitute racial profiling and will
not aid the fight against terrorism.

Speakers will include:
-Jayashri Srikantiah, American Civil Liberties Union of Northern
California
-Samina Faheem, American Muslim Alliance / Pakistan American
Democratic Forum
-Matthew Van Saun, Amnesty International
-Ben Allen, Blue Triangle Network
-Medea Benjamin, Global Exchange
-Riva Enteen, National Lawyers Guild
-Rev. John Oda, Pine United Methodist Church
-Greg Marutani, SF Japanese American Citizens League
-Statement from Attorney Lynne Stewart
Speakers at the protest following the news conference include
representatives of ANSWER, Arab-American Anti-Discrimination
Committee, Global Exchange, Refuse & Resist, South Alameda Peace &
Justice Committee, Not in Our Name, and others.

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Nancy Pelosi’s Letter To Me Regarding The INS Special Registrations

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I wish I could say I am happy with her response.

Letter To Me From Leader Nancy Pelosi regarding the INS Special Registrations.

I believe that the US government must ensure that immigration laws are not applied in a way that violates fundamental protections against discrimination. Any registration process must be administered fairly, and those facing questioning, detention or other legal proceedings should be given prompt access to lawyers…
There is no doubt that the tragic events of September 11 have changed our country. Some additional security measures and policy changes are necessary to reduce the threat of future attacks. In 2002, Congress passed the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act, which authorized the implementation of an entry/exit system in order to track the flow of non-immigrants arriving into, and departing from, the United States. However, NSEERS was not contemplated in the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act and was developed by the Department of Justice without any Congressional consultation or oversight.
In February, the Senate agreed to an amendment (S.Amdt.54) during it’s consideration of the FY2003 Omnibus Appropriations bill (H.J.Res.2) that prevented funds from being spend on any NSEERS activity and directed the Attorney General to provide Congress with NSEERS-related documents and materials. The final version of H.J.Res.2, signed into law by President Bush, restored the funds for NSEERS, but required the Attorney General to provide Congress with materials regarding NSEERS by March 1, 2003. To date, the documents have not been provided to Congress.

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FBI Terrorizing College Students At University Of Idaho

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This just in from
Elizabeth Barker Brandt,
Professor, University of Idaho College of Law:
Subject: 120 armed FBI agents stage pre-dawn visa raid at Univ. of Idaho
Date: Fri, 07 Mar 2003 13:15:20 -1000
The following letter was forwarded to SEVIS, and is chilling testimony to the campaign of fear and intimidation on university campuses.
Information shared by universities through the SEVIS tracking system enable the INS, FBI and CIA to carry out such crimes. Send copies of this letter to
your International Student Services, and your administration! Put it in your campus newspaper! This raid conveniently happened in a small town
where it is difficult to build a strong movement in support of immigrants and international students. We’ll keep you posted.
From: Prof. Elizabeth Brandt from Univ. of Idaho:
Well, yesterday was an exciting day in my small town. The FBI flew in 120 agents, fully armed in riot gear, on two C-17 military aircraft (I
think — they were BIG planes) to Moscow Idaho (population 17,000 +/-) to arrest one Saudi graduate student for visa fraud. The raid went
down in University of Idaho student housing at 4:30 a.m. in the morning, terrorizing not only the suspect’s family (he lived in student
housing with his wife and three elementary school age children) but also the families of neighboring students who were awakened by the
shouting and lights and were required to remain in their homes until after 8:30 a.m. At least 20 other students who had the misfortune to either know the
suspect or to have some minor immigration irregularities were also subjected to substantial, surprise interrogations (4+ hours) although
none were detained or arrested yesterday. Now, however, a witch hunt for additional unamed suspects who supposedly helped the guy who was
arrested is on.
The INS and FBI are working together using gestapo tactics to question the students — threatening their immigration status (and
hence their education) if they don’t answer questions which are really aimed at the criminal investigation. They have also threatened their partners
and spouses with perjury charges if they don’t talk.
I spent yesterday working with our immigration clinic director and local criminal defense attorneys to organize legal representation for
the students who are being swept into the hunt for co-conspiritors. We have reached out to our entire area (40 -mile radius) to find enough
attorneys. Now I’m working on getting resources and support to them.
The Saudi government is providing financial support.
Reading about this stuff is one thing. Having it in your backyard is another. The international students at the University of Idaho are
terrorized and scared.
Liz Brandt
Elizabeth Barker Brandt
Professor
University of Idaho College of Law