Articles Tagged ‘Racial Justice’

Specialist Adam Jarrell on KRQE, the National Guardsman from Hobbs, NM the ACLU-NM is representing:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSOgwkUjcE4

SPC Adam Jarrell in Afghanistan

ALBUQUERQUE, NM – Today the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico filed a racial discrimination complaint with the federal Office for Civil Rights, Department of Justice on behalf of Adam Jarrell, a decorated Specialist in the New Mexico Army National Guard. Jarrell, a member of the 920^th Engineering Unit, is the only African-American in his unit of approximately 216 soldiers. Jarrell alleges that while he was deployed in a combat zone in Afghanistan in 2009, other soldiers in his unit subjected him to racist comments and threats, culminating with an incident in which he found a noose hanging outside his barracks door. When he brought this misconduct to his commanding officers, they ignored the issue and in some cases explicitly condoned the offending soldiers’ behavior.

“No one should suffer the kind of racial hatred Specialist Jarrell experienced, least of all someone who is on the front lines of battle,” said ACLU-NM Executive Director Peter Simonson. “Our military is supposed to maintain a professional, disciplined fighting force. People’s lives depend on it. Racism and racially motivated threats have no place in our state’s National Guard units.”

SPC Jarrell alleges that the racially-motivated harassment began after he reported a non-commissioned officer for physically abusing two fellow subordinate soldiers. Breaking military rules, SPC Jarrell’s Captain disclosed to the offending non-commissioned officer that the misconduct report originated from Jarrell. From this point forward, Jarrell’s non-commissioned officers subjected him to threats of physical violence, increasingly harsh retaliations and racially-motivated harassment.

SPC Jarrell’s non-commissioned officers routinely referred to him in front of his fellow soldiers as “mayate,”  a Mexican-American slang derogatory term often thought of as the Spanish counterpart to the word “nigger.” On January 5, 2010, Jarrell returned to his barrack, which was solely occupied by him, and found a noose hanging outside his door. SPC Jarrell made multiple attempts to report this misconduct, but his superiors made no meaningful attempt to address this serious and pervasive problem. Instead, they attempted to justify use of the word “mayate” and joined the campaign of retaliation against SPC Jarrell, even attempting to medically discharge him for “bee allergies.”

“From day one, our trainers hammered home that our lives depended on the guy standing next to us,” said Jarrell. “How am I expected to entrust my life to a fellow soldier who hates me because of the color of my skin? How are we to accomplish our mission if unit cohesion is poisoned by racism? This is a serious problem, not just for me, but for the entire unit.”

His complaints reached even the NMANG commanding officer, Major General Kenny Montoya, but still nothing was done. Having exhausted all possible avenues, SPC Jarrell contacted the ACLU of New Mexico for assistance. The complaint demands that the Office for Civil Rights hold responsible those who subjected SPC Jarrell to offensive racist language, threats of physical assault, countless acts of retaliation and the horrific image of a noose hanging outside his sleeping quarters.

The full OCR complaint can be read here: National Guard OCR Complaint

SPC Adam Jarrell is represented by ACLU-NM Staff Attorney Leon F. Howard and ACLU-NM Managing Attorney Laura Schauer Ives.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 6, 2011

CONTACT: Micah McCoy, (505) 266-5915 x1003 or mmccoy@aclu-nm.org

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Albuquerque four months delinquent in providing information regarding program to screen arrestees for immigration status

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.—The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico (ACLU-NM) filed a lawsuit Friday, December 3^rd against the City of Albuquerque for its refusal to provide information regarding the implementation of ‘Secure Communities,’ a federal program to screen arrestees for immigration status in Albuquerque jails. The lawsuit alleges that the City has effectively denied information to the ACLU that it is required to share under the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act (IPRA).

“As New Mexicans, we have a right to access documents and other information that are a matter of public record,” said ACLU-NM Executive Director Peter Simonson. “Our state IPRA exists to keep government open and accountable; it’s the law and the City of Albuquerque must comply with it.”

Upon receiving an IPRA request, a New Mexico governmental agency is required by law to provide the requested public information within 15 days. Should they fail to do so, they are deemed to have denied the request. ACLU-NM filed the original IPRA request on July, 16 2010 and has sent multiple follow-up inquiries in an attempt to obtain the requested documents. As of the date of this release, ACLU-NM has not received any of the requested information concerning the implementation of Secure Communities in Albuquerque’s Prisoner Transport Center.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security created the Secure Communities program for the alleged purpose of helping Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to identify serious criminal offenders who are unlawfully present in the United States. Studies show, however, that Secure Communities has largely targeted minor offenders and, in some jurisdictions, has led to higher levels of arrests of people who appear and sound “foreign.”

“Not only is the City of Albuquerque unlawfully withholding important public information from the people of New Mexico, but they’re needlessly wasting taxpayers’ money,” said ACLU-NM Managing Attorney Laura Schauer Ives. “Under state law, ACLU-NM is entitled to $100 in damages for every day the city is delinquent in responding to our public information request. Because of their noncompliance in this simple matter, the city owes ACLU-NM in excess of $18,000.”

In addition to seeking damages, the lawsuit also demands that the City of Albuquerque release the information regarding Secure Communities that ACLU-NM originally requested under IPRA in July, 2010.

ACLU-NM Managing Attorney Laura Schauer Ives represents the plaintiff in this case.

A copy of the complaint can be found here.

PRESS CONTACT: Micah McCoy, (505) 266-5915 Ext. 1003, or mmccoy@aclu-nm.org

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FBI’s Power To Track And Map “Behaviors” And “Lifestyle Characteristics” Of American Communities Raises Alarm

The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico (ACLU-NM) today asked the FBI to turn over records related to the agency’s collection and use of race and ethnicity data in local communities. According to a 2008 FBI operations guide, FBI agents have the authority to collect information about and map so-called “ethnic-oriented” businesses, behaviors, lifestyle characteristics and cultural traditions in communities with concentrated ethnic populations. While some racial and ethnic data collection by some agencies might be helpful in lessening discrimination, the FBI’s attempt to collect and map demographic data using race-based criteria for targeting purposes invites unconstitutional racial profiling by law enforcement, says the ACLU.

“The FBI is collecting data not based on any evidence of criminal activity, but solely on individuals’ perceived race, ethnicity, nationality or religion,” said ACLU-NM Managing Attorney Laura Schauer Ives. “This creates the potential for racial profiling on a truly massive scale.”

The FBI’s power to collect, use, and map racial and ethnic data in order to assist the FBI’s “domain awareness” and “intelligence analysis” activities is described in the 2008 FBI Domestic Intelligence and Operations Guide (DIOG). The FBI released the DIOG in heavily redacted form in September 2009, but a less-censored version was not made public until January of this year, in response to a lawsuit filed by Muslim Advocates. Although the DIOG has been in effect for more than a year and a half, very little information is available to the public about how the FBI has implemented this authority.

“The public deserves to know about a race-based domestic intelligence program with such troubling implications for civil rights and civil liberties,” said Melissa Goodman, staff attorney with the ACLU National Security Project. “We hope that the coordinated efforts of ACLU affiliates across the nation will finally bring this important information to light so that the American people can know the extent of the FBI’s racial data gathering and mapping practices and whether the agency is abusing its authority.”

ACLU affiliate offices across the nation today filed coordinated Freedom of Information Act requests to uncover records about the FBI’s collection and use of racial and ethnicity data from their local FBI field offices. The requests were filed by the ACLU affiliates in Alabama, Arkansas, California (Northern, Southern and San Diego), Colorado, Connecticut, Washington, D.C., Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont and Virginia.

The DIOG provisions in question are available online at: www.muslimadvocates.org/DIOGs_Chapter4.pdf

The entire DIOG is at: www.muslimadvocates.org/latest/profiling_update/community_alert_seek_legal_adv.html

Law Will Poison Community Policing Efforts

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 23, 2010

PHOENIX – Arizona Governor Jan Brewer today signed into law Arizona’s discriminatory immigration enforcement bill which requires law enforcement to question individuals about their immigration status during everyday police encounters. The law creates new immigration crimes and penalties inconsistent with those in federal law, asserts sweeping authority to detain and transport persons suspected of violating civil immigration laws and prohibits speech and other expressive activity by persons seeking work. The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Arizona strongly condemn the governor’s decision to sign the unconstitutional law and are dismayed by her disregard for the serious damage it could cause to civil liberties and public safety in the state.

“Governor Brewer and the Arizona legislature have set Arizona apart in their willingness to sacrifice our liberties and the economy of this state,” said Alessandra Soler Meetze, Executive Director of the ACLU of Arizona. “By signing this bill into law, Brewer has just authorized violating the rights of millions of people living and working here. She has just given every police agency in Arizona a mandate to harass anyone who looks or sounds foreign, while doing nothing to address the real problems we’re facing.”

The new law, which will not go into effect for more than 90 days, requires police agencies across Arizona to investigate the immigration status of every person they come across whom they have “reasonable suspicion” to believe is in the country unlawfully. To avoid arrest, citizens and immigrants will effectively have to carry their “papers” at all times. The law also makes it a state crime for immigrants to willfully fail to register with the Department of Homeland Security and carry registration documents. It further curtails the free speech rights of day laborers and encourages unchecked information sharing between government agencies.

“Forcing local police to demand people’s papers and arrest those who can’t immediately prove their status will do nothing to make us safer,” said Dan Pochoda, Legal Director of the ACLU of Arizona. “What it will do is divert scarce police resources to address false threats and force officers to prioritize immigration enforcement over all other public safety responsibilities. It is a dark day for Arizona when the goal of appeasing one state Senator, Russell Pearce, takes priority over fundamental rights and economic needs of residents.”

Before the governor signed the bill, President Obama criticized it harshly, calling it “misguided” and saying that it threatens to “undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans.” Obama promised to “closely monitor the situation and examine the civil rights and other implications of this legislation.”

The president’s statement is consistent with his longstanding opposition to anti-immigrant laws that attempt to bypass the federal government. As a senator, he lauded the 2007 legal ruling blocking the anti-immigrant law in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, calling the law “unconstitutional and unworkable.”

Despite the president’s statements, his administration has not taken strong action against state and local anti-immigrant laws, paving the way for extreme laws like the one signed today. Currently, the administration has a prime opportunity to take a stand on the issue, because the solicitor general will soon file a brief explaining the administration’s position on Arizona’s unconstitutional employer sanctions law, passed in 2007, which creates a state-level immigrant employment verification and sanctions regime.

“Actions speak louder than words,” said Omar Jadwat, a staff attorney with the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project. “As the federal government sits on its hands, Arizona’s anti-immigrant brushfires have turned into a firestorm. We call on the administration to file a brief categorically opposing Arizona’s employer sanctions law to demonstrate its commitment to stopping anti-immigrant laws that interfere with federal authority, wreak havoc on businesses and cause discrimination against Latinos.”

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The mission of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico is to maintain and advance the cause of civil liberties within the state of New Mexico, with particular emphasis on the freedom of religion, speech, press, association, and assemblage, and the right to vote, due process of law and equal protection of law, and to take any legitimate action in the furtherance and defense of such purposes. These objectives shall be sought wholly without political partisanship.