3 minority caucuses want Coble renounced
House leaders asked to repudiate remarks by N.C. congressman

Three minority congressional caucuses asked House leaders Wednesday to denounce remarks by Rep. Howard Coble, R-N.C., defending the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.
The Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus called on leaders to repudiate the remarks.
“As our country is engaged in a war against terrorism, and is on the brink of a war against Iraq, respect for civil liberties is crucial to ensure that we do not repeat the mistakes of the past,” the groups said in a letter to House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and Judiciary Committee chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis.
“To demonstrate that you have learned from the Trent Lott experience and the importance of getting history right, we ask you to repudiate Congressman Coble’s statements as an inaccurate, misleading and potentially damaging view of history,” the letter said.
The caucuses also asked House leaders to pass a resolution that calls for a “Day of Remembrance” for the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.
Neither Hastert’s nor Sensenbrenner’s offices returned telephone messages Wednesday seeking comment.
Coble chief of staff Missy Branson referred only to Coble’s written statement of Feb. 10 in which he said, “I regret that many Japanese and Arab Americans found my choice of words offensive because that was certainly not my intent.”
In a radio show appearance Feb. 4, Coble disagreed with a caller who said Arab-Americans should be confined, but appeared to defend the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.
“We were at war. They were an endangered species,” Coble said. “For many of these Japanese-Americans, it wasn’t safe for them to be on the street.”
Coble said most Japanese-Americans during World War II, like most Arab-Americans today, were not America’s enemies, but President Roosevelt had to consider the nation’s security.
“Some probably were intent on doing harm to us,” he said, “just as some of these Arab-Americans are probably intent on doing harm to us.”
The remarks sparked protests from several minority groups and from three Asian-American congressmen: Reps. Mike Honda, D-Calif., Robert Matsui, D-Calif., and David Wu, D-Ore.
The Democratic National Committee has asked Coble to resign as chairman of the House Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security subcommittee.

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Wow. I’m still speechless and left trying to even fathom this one.
Ten years from now this may be regarded as an urban legend, but…
The official story is that a couple INS managers lost it one day and started having incoming INS mail professionally shredded because there was just too much of it. (A new variation on going postal!)

I.N.S. Shredder Ended WorkBacklog, U.S. Says
By John M. Broder for the NY Times.

Tens of thousands of pieces of mail come into the huge Immigration and Naturalization Service data processing center in Laguna Niguel, Calif., every day, and as at so many government agencies, it tends to pile up. One manager there had a system to get rid of the vexing backlog, federal officials say. This week the manager was charged with illegally shredding as many as 90,000 documents.
Among the destroyed papers, federal officials charged, were American and foreign passports, applications for asylum, birth certificates and other documents supporting applications for citizenship, visas and work permits.
The manager, Dawn Randall, 24, was indicted late Wednesday by a federal grand jury, along with a supervisor working under her, Leonel Salazar, 34. They are accused of ordering low-level workers to destroy thousands of documents from last February to April to reduce a growing backlog of unprocessed paperwork…
By the end of March, the backlog had been cut to zero, and Ms. Randall ordered her subordinates to continue destroying incoming paper to keep current, the government says.
“There was no I.N.S. policy that required this, nor was she ordered to do it by any superior, as far as we know,” said Greg Staples, the assistant United States attorney handling the case. “The only motive we can think of is just the obvious one of a manager trying to get rid of a nettlesome problem.”
Ms. Randall and Mr. Salazar were each charged with conspiracy and five counts of willfully destroying documents filed with the I.N.S. The conspiracy charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison. Each of the other counts can bring three years in prison.
Their subordinates were not charged because they were low-level workers acting on instructions, the government said.
After the shredding was discovered, the immigration service opened a hotline for people who suspected their paperwork had been destroyed. Agency officials helped petitioners reconstruct their files and gave applicants the benefit of the doubt if they could not replace the documents they had submitted, said Lori Haley, a spokeswoman for the I.N.S.’s western regional office.
She said the agency made an effort last year to publicize the problem and was confident that it had rebuilt most of the lost files. She also said that additional staff members had been hired at the center and that oversight had been tightened…
The four document processing centers are operated under a $325 million contract with JHM Research and Development of Maryland, which in turn subcontracts the operations to two other companies. John Macklin, president of JHM, was unavailable for comment.
Mr. Staples, the federal prosecutor, said the contractors were cooperating with the investigation and would not be charged unless more evidence against them was developed.
“If we had found criminal liability, we would have indicted the companies,” he said.

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We did it guys! We all did it together!
It looks like the folks on Capitol Hill actually listened to the last month of letters and protests!
Pat yourselves on the back and check this out:
Senate Votes to Halt INS Registration Program
By Edward Walsh for the Washington Post.

The massive appropriations bill approved by the Senate late Thursday includes a little-noticed amendment that would cut off funding for a Justice Department program that requires male immigrants from two dozen predominantly Muslim countries to register and be fingerprinted by the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
The main purpose of the amendment was to restore funding for a congressionally mandated program that by 2005 is designed to provide information on the identity of all visitors to the United States and track when they enter and leave the country.
But the amendment also included language that bans the use of any of the money for the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS), a program targeted at male temporary visitors from countries the government considers to be terrorist harbors…
Since last October, the INS also has been fingerprinting and questioning male immigrants from countries on the NSEERS list at selected ports of entry to the United States. The Senate spending ban, which would apply to “any expenses relating to NSEERS” apparently would cut off funds for that effort and the more controversial registration program, which began late last year.
The Senate amendment also would require Attorney General John D. Ashcroft to provide Congress with documents and other information on the creation and operation of NSEERS, and provide an assessment of the program’s effectiveness. Corallo said the Justice Department “will work with Congress and answer all of their questions and concerns.”
The amendment to restore $165 million for the larger tracking system, which had been cut from the bill by Senate appropriators, was offered on the Senate floor by Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl, both Arizona Republicans, and was adopted by voice vote. In their brief remarks on the floor, neither mentioned the provision cutting off funding for the NSEERS program. The Bush administration had requested $16.8 million to fund the program for the current fiscal year.
Congressional sources said the NSEERS funding cutoff was included in the amendment at the request of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.). James Manley, a Kennedy spokesman, said the amendment “cuts funding until Congress has the information it needs to assess whether this is the most effective use of tax dollars in the war on terrorism.”

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I just wanted to make sure I had a simple link to the main page of my immigrant roundup/INS Detainee Protest website.

Lisa Rein’s INS Detainee Protest Website
I just realized that I hadn’t yet placed a simple link to the website from this blog category…
Sorry for my still adequate-at-best style of navigation between the content of my various websites. (Growing pains! So much to do, so little time to organize.)

This just in:

INS Detainees on Hunger Strike in Passaic County
Jail
As of 3pm Tuesday January 14, 2003, seven men
detained by the US Immigration and Naturalization
Service (INS) are on a hunger strike to protest
their detention by the INS and their treatment
in the Passaic County Jail. They say that they
will continue their strike until the INS meets
with them to discuss their complaints.
The hunger strikers are demanding the release of
9/11 detainees, most of whom are not charged
with crimes but are being held in prison while
the INS attempts to deport them or resolve their
status. They are demanding improvements in
food, medical care, air quality and family visits,
a resumption of the Friday Islamic services
the prison provided until a month ago, and
separate living quarters for Muslim detainees.
Conditions at Passaic County Jail continue to
worsen.
The detainees say that the prison’s food is
insufficient, unpalatable and does not provide
adequate protein and vitamins, leading to health
problems, while the medical services are limited
and slow; dental services do not go beyond the
removal of teeth. The aging ventilation system
also contributes to their health problems.
9/11 (“Special Interest’) Muslim detainees demand
separate living quarters. At present, they are
experiencing xenophobia, abuse and threats from
the general prison population, which are largely
ignored by prison guards.

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Immigrants may get more time to register with anti-terror list
By Matthai Chakko Kuruvila for the San Jose Mercury News.

As immigrants from five more Muslim countries are
expected to be added today to the list of those required
to register with the INS, the agency will reportedly grant
a grace period for those who failed to check in over the
past two months.
The grace period responds to concerns aroused during
the first two rounds of registrations, when many
immigrants were arrested for registering late even
though they said they heard about the rule after the
deadline…
Bay Area immigration attorneys said some of their
clients, including some with legal status, had been
incarcerated for registering late when they had been
unaware of the requirement. Now, most face deportation
hearings.
The INS has released few details about the detentions,
other than to say that 400 people had been arrested in
California. Immigration activists say the real figure is
higher. The lack of information prompted activists
to conduct an ad hoc accounting of which special
registrants entered the San Francisco INS office and who
left.
Heba Nimr, an attorney with the INS Watch-La Raza
Centro Legal, said that at least 65 people had been
detained at the San Francisco INS office during the
last week of the most recently completed registration
round, which ended last Friday. Fifty of those were
arrested on the last day, Nimr said.

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Ai Mara – Not In Our Name

Ai Mara – January 10, 2003 – San Francisco – (Med-res 74 MB) Ai Mara – January 10, 2003 – San Francisco – (Lo-res 37 MB) Audio – Ai Mara – January 10, 2003 – San Francisco – (MP3 8 MB)

“It doesn’t make me feel more secure to know
that families will be torn apart, to know that I might
see the police coming for my neighbors, or, worse yet,
I might not even see them at all. I won’t know until
it’s too late.

It doesn’t make me feel more secure to know that first
it will be the Arabs and the Muslims that will be
taken from general society, and then, who knows?
It might be the Koreans. The Tunesians. The Socialists.
The Communitsts. The Anti-war activists. We can’t afford
to lose each other. We can’t afford to lose each others’
voices.

My grandmother graduated from high school from behind
barbed wire, out in the desert. And like most other
Japanese families living in those times, when those
trains rolled in, they lost everything.

Sixty some odd years ago, there was another similar
gathering of names, like this one. I cannot stand by
and let history repeat itself…

The government knows we’re watching them. Thanks to
thousands raising their voices in L.A. and the hard
work here of all of the people here. They know that
we’re keeping tabs. They can’t just handcuff people left
and right like they did in December.”

Yesterday’s rally was incredible! There must have been at least 500 people there. (Enough to fill up all four corners for 100 meters in every direction.
The cops brought out barriers and gave the crowd a lane of traffic on Washington Street too. The cops didn’t seem to mind that me and fifty other camera people were (gasp) filming the building!
The “stage” was a big truck with a generator, microphones, speakers and a PA in back.
I’ll be putting the footage from Friday’s protest together on one page in a day or two. But I’ll also be posting them here as they emerge from my machine.
I really wanted to start publishing what few clips I do have available as soon as possible in the the interest of being more of a dependable “news” source. In case people are trying to put shows together to air on Sunday, they can use clips from Tom Ammiano and Jeff Adachi’s speeches (below).
Remember that you can always email me if you need a louder MP3 file or a different format or a DV tape of a scene or something else for a project your working on. My news footage is always Public Domain’d under a Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication so you or whatever (hopefully huge multimedia conglomorate) company that you work for can be assured of having the rights to rebroadcast the footage.
The whole point of me doing all this is to have this footage redistributed and rebroadcast and reanalyzed and discussed as far as wide and to as many people as possible.
Thanks in advance for making millions of copies of everything and giving them to your friends and for using my video footage in your own films, television programs, artistic and commercial endeavors.
Whatever clips/audio I’m able to upload this morning will be all until tomorrow am because I’m actually going to be offline with family for perhaps the rest of the day. (But more likely only till later tonight.)
Tomorrow will be the big day that I’m crunching video and uploading it for pretty much all day long. There’s a lot of great stuff from Friday and I still have Tuesday and Thursday to edit and upload from last week once I’ve finished with Friday’s protest and speakers (all 8 or so of them). (Why go back to finish Tuesday and Thursday? — Because there were protesters every day last week and I want you guys to be able to see it all, dag nabbit!)