Group Fears Civilian Backlash following INS Round-up Washington, DC — Sikh Mediawatch and Resource Task Force (SMART), a national Sikh American advocacy group, expressed deep concern about the detention of Middle Eastern immigrants in Southern California last week. SMART’s Executive Director, Navtej Khalsa, questioned the effect of these actions on the relationship between immigrant communities and law enforcement officials. “We understand the need to prevent against any potential future terrorist attacks,” said Khalsa, “but these mass detentions following short deadlines will increase fear amongst immigrant communities who will distrust the government. I also worry that some civilians who witness the government-sponsored round-up will act violently on their prejudices to target Arabs, Muslims, and those who appear to belong to these groups, such as Sikh Americans.” On December 16, the INS detained hundreds of Middle Eastern men as they tried to comply with the requirement that males over the age of 16 years from five Middle Eastern countries who had been admitted as non-immigrants report to the INS to be fingerprinted and interviewed. Instead of registering their presence with the INS, an estimated 500 – 1,000 of these individuals have been placed in detention and are being put into deportation proceedings. The Los Angeles Times stated that up to one-fourth of those who attempted to register were jailed in Los Angeles. Many of the individuals detained were in the process of adjusting their status in the U.S. SMART strongly condemns this new INS registration requirement for non-immigrants as a discriminatory form of ineffective national origin profiling. Furthermore, SMART believes the Department of Justice, which prosecutes national-origin-based discrimination, is practicing such discrimination itself. SMART also considers these registration requirements a form of involuntary detention without the use of actual internment camps. SMART joins the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and others in opposing alien registration policies that clearly discriminate on the basis of national origin and is a form of racial profiling.
