McCarthyism Ashcroft-Style: Post 9/11 Immigration Policies

By Faisal Ghori

The events of September 11, 2001 forever changed America and its policies towards immigrants. Historically American soil was open to any who could reach it, after all this is, or was, the land of the free. However, since 9-11 American immigration policies have undergone a sweeping overhaul, which has resulted in the detention and deportation of thousands of Muslim men.

As time would show those responsible for the attacks were all Muslim men, largely from Saudi Arabia, and allegedly had ties to Osama bin Laden’s organization al-Qaeda. Since then all suspicion and fear was, and has been, focused upon Islam and Muslims as conduits of terror. With this mentality, Muslims living in America, and those wishing to enter, were immediately now considered as possible terrorists.

On November 8, 2001, three months after the attacks, Attorney General John Ashcroft singled out males aged 18-33 from countries where al-Qaeda has a “terrorist presence or activity” to register with the Immigration and Naturalization Service, in hopes of stopping terrorism. This memo almost singularly has altered the trajectory of INS and other government policies and in practice has profiled immigrants on the basis of origin and religion. To make matters worse, still reeling from the attacks congress hurriedly passed through the USA Patriot Act, which gave sweeping new authority to the executive branch – including the Department of Justice and Homeland Security. The new legislative authority given by the Patriot Act in conjunction with Attorney General Ashcroft’s specific focus upon countries with a “terrorist presence or activity” almost immediately led to the rounding up Muslim immigrants, largely Pakistani citizens.

Federal authorities raided the homes and workplaces of many immigrants all under the basis of preventing terrorism. Since these new policies have been implemented more than one year has passed, and thousands have been detained and deported, but only four have been arrested upon connection to terrorism. The overwhelming majority of immigrants were detained, as time would show, for no other reason than they were Muslim and held citizenship in a Muslim country.

Upon being detained immigrants were often found to have violated INS statutes and were subsequently deported. It must be said that many of those detained were never aware of the changes made to INS statutes following 9/11, and thus had failed to comply with them. That is not to say that there were not those who had legitimately violated INS policies to remain in the US.

New changes to immigration policies have left many puzzled. Lucas Guttentag, director of the Immigrants Rights Project for the ACLU, explains that currently “an immigrant can be detained if they are in violation of the immigration laws, and if there is evidence that they are a danger to national security, or will not appear at their immigration hearing. That has always been part of the law. What's new about what Congress is considering now is that the power to detain would be based on mere suspicion. The detention would be mandatory, and the detention could be indefinite.”

America has established itself upon the sacrifices made by its immigrants. The earliest Pilgrims came to America hoping to establish for themselves new lives, in a place where they would be free. Muslim immigrants came for the same reasons, but September 11 would forever alter their destinies in America. They soon found themselves under the full force of the US federal government under suspicions of terrorism on the basis that the 9/11 hijackers shared their religion. Since the implementation of these new policies the exact number of those detained and deported has been kept confidential by the Department of Justice. It is unknown how long they were detained or if they were provided with legal representation. Despite these uncertainties, one thing is certain – thousands of Muslim men have been suspect of terrorism simply on the basis of their religion and that their country of origin has a significant Muslim population.

For more information, see "Targeting Muslims, at Ashcroft's Discretion" by Louise Cainkar in Middle East Report.