Group Calls U.S. Report to U.N. a Whitewash

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 10, 2007

CONTACT: Will Matthews, ACLU (212) 549-2582 or (212) 549-2666;media@aclu.org or Whitney Potter, ACLU of New Mexico (505) 266-5915 ext. 1003 or (505) 507-9898

NEW YORK – The American Civil Liberties Union today released a comprehensive analysis of the pervasive institutionalized, systemic and structural racism in America. The report, Race & Ethnicity in America: Turning a Blind Eye to Injustice, is a response to the U.S. report to the United Nations’ Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) released earlier this year. The U.S. report, which the ACLU called a “whitewash,” swept under the rug the dramatic effects of widespread racial and ethnic discrimination in this country.

“The America we believe in is one where people are treated fairly regardless of their race and ethnicity. But unfortunately, the U.S. government is not living up to our ideals,” said Dennis Parker, Director of the ACLU’s Racial Justice Program. “We will continue to press this administration to pursue wide-ranging and rigorous measures to enforce this treaty and to end racial discrimination.”

The U.S. government submitted its report in April to the CERD committee, an independent group of internationally recognized human rights experts that oversees compliance with the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, a treaty signed and ratified by the U.S. in 1994. All levels of the U.S. government are required to comply with the treaty’s provisions, which require countries to review national, state and local policies and to amend or repeal laws and regulations that create or perpetuate racial discrimination. The treaty also encourages countries to take positive measures, including affirmative action, to redress racial inequalities.

In its “shadow report” to the U.N., compiled jointly by the ACLU’s Human Rights and Racial Justice Programs and based on information provided by the ACLU affiliates in more than 20 states, the ACLU documents the U.S. government’s failure to fully comply with CERD in numerous substantive areas affecting racial and ethnic minorities. The report closely examines policies and practices at the federal, state and local levels which place a disproportionate burden on those most vulnerable in society – including women, children, incarcerated persons and immigrants and non-citizens.

Since its ratification, U.S. reporting on compliance has been inadequate, and this most recent report is no exception – it is a combination of two overdue reports spanning the years 2000-2006. The government’s report is riddled with misrepresentations and inaccuracies and fails to honestly assess the ways in which racial and ethnic discrimination and inequality persist.

The ACLU’s report details the setbacks in the promotion of racial and ethnic equality, including the government’s attack on affirmative action and the courts’ curtailment of civil rights and remedies for discrimination. The ACLU report finds that discrimination in America permeates education, employment, the treatment of migrants and immigrants, law enforcement, access to justice for juveniles and adults, court proceedings, detention and incarceration, the death penalty, and the many collateral consequences of incarceration including the loss of political rights.

The ACLU report also criticizes major shortcomings in the U.S. government’s report including: a minor mention of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina (and only in the housing discrimination context) and a total omission of the “school to prison pipeline” phenomenon, which involves the overzealous funneling of students of color out of classrooms and into the criminal justice system. The report also suffers from a complete lack of information on the dramatic increase in hate crimes and the escalating problem of police brutality.

The ACLU report examines human rights violations that took place before, during and after Hurricane Katrina, a crisis that exposed to the world the persistence of racial and economic inequalities in America, and their impact on African-American and other minority communities. It also documents the epidemic of minorities being subjected to racial profiling, a practice most often associated with African-Americans and Latinos, but one which also affects other minority communities, and since 9/11, has increasingly been directed at Arabs, Muslims, and South Asians.

In addition, the report highlights the government’s failure to protect immigrants and non-citizens, and particularly low-wage workers, from racially discriminatory policies and acts like governmental crackdowns and workplace raids.

Despite the treaty’s clear requirement to provide state-level information, the U.S. government’s report comprehensively reports on only four states – Oregon, South Carolina, New Mexico and Illinois – and fails to provide adequate information on some of the most racially diverse states such as California, Texas, New York and  Florida, or on the Gulf Coast states devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

December 10th is celebrated worldwide as International Human Rights Day. Today the ACLU and many of its affiliates across the country will hold events as part of the ACLU’s National Day of Action Against Racial Discrimination.

A copy of the ACLU’s report on the U.S. government’s report to CERD can be found online at: http://www.aclu.org/cerd

More information on the ACLU’s Human Rights Program can be found online at: www.aclu.org/intlhumanrights/gen/30079pub20070612.html

More information on the ACLU’s Racial Justice Program can be found online at: www.aclu.org/racialjustice/index.html

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 3, 2007

CONTACT: Whitney Potter (505) 266 5915 ext. 1003, Cell (505) 507 9898

ALBUQUERQUE—The federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) gave back almost $23,000 to truck driver Anastasio Prieto in response to a civil rights lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico.  The DEA seized the money in connection with a search of Prieto’s truck that occurred at a weigh station north of El Paso on August 8.  DEA agents had no evidence that Prieto was involved in illegal activity.

“Carrying around large amounts of cash is not a crime in America,” said ACLU Executive Director Peter Simonson.  “But our federal laws have so empowered law enforcement to investigate drug activity that some officers assume they can simply cut the corners and dispense with the need for actual evidence.  That’s what occurred in Mr. Prieto’s case, and we were glad that our involvement could set the record straight—at least in this instance.”

While claims have been dropped against the DEA, Prieto has an ongoing lawsuit against the New Mexico state police for their role in the money seizure.  During the August 8 incident, state officers—who are yet to be identified–asked to search Prieto’s truck and if it contained “needles or cash in excess of ten thousand dollars.”  Prieto consented to the search and replied that, while he did not have any needles, he did have nearly $24,000 in his possession.

Officers took the money and turned it over DEA officials, who informed Prieto that he would need to prove in an administrative hearing that the money truly is his, and that it did not derive from illegal drug sales.  Agents told Prieto that the process would “probably take a year.”

Simonson said, “It appears that the DEA pulled some strings to speed the process up and get Mr. Prieto’s money back to him.  Probably they feared bad publicity.  Most Americans are deeply offended by the notion that the government can so arbitrarily deprive a law-abiding citizen of his or her hard-earned cash.”

Both Albuquerque and Santa Fe newspapers published editorial comments decrying the DEA’s actions.  [link to Journal editorial and Sandy’s column in New Mexican.]

ACLU attorneys Cid Lopez, George Bach, and Maureen Sanders filed the suit on Prieto’s behalf in federal court.  The ACLU has filed a public records request with the Department of Public Safety to determine the identity of the officers who originally seized Prieto’s money.

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Related Documents:

Prieto Complaint

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Press Release: DEA Takes Trucker’s Money; ACLU Wants It Given Back