Post 9/11 Civil Liberties

Overview

Like all Americans, Latinos support measures that strengthen and protect national security. However, over the past several years, efforts to thwart potential terrorist attacks and the development of policies to identify individuals who pose a threat to our nation have alienated and marginalized segments of the Latino community, and immigrant populations as a whole, with little evidence that these steps are effective. In particular, immigration and national security are now intermingled in the U.S. in unprecedented ways, and immigrants – or those perceived to be immigrants – have taken the brunt of many new policies intended to increase national security. The government’s counterterrorism efforts have had the most negative effects on American Muslims and Arab Americans. However, many of the newly-enacted policies have had a detrimental effect on noncitizen Latinos, and even Hispanic U.S. citizens have been affected because they are mistaken for immigrants or because their immigrant family members have been targeted. As a result, the rights of noncitizens have been seriously undermined, and many observers have also documented the infringements on the civil rights of all Americans since September 11, 2001.

The Latino community has long experience with being at the receiving end of immigration enforcement. NCLR speaks out against the selective use of any law enforcement mechanism against any group of Americans on the basis of their religion or national origin and supports the CLRA and other efforts to restore fairness to our justice system.

NCLR works closely with the Rights Working Group www.rightsworkinggroup.org, a broad-based coalition created to protect civil rights, civil liberties, and human rights.

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