National Coalition Calls on Congress to Pass Bill Prohibiting Racial Profiling

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Keith Rushing, Rights Working Group, 202.591.3305, 202.557.4291
krushing@rightsworkinggroup.org

Nov. 4, 2011, Washington D.C. –Rights Working Group, a coalition of more than 320 organizations representing civil liberties, national security, immigrant and human rights advocates, urges Congress to prioritize the passing of legislation that would prohibit racial profiling by law enforcement at the federal, state and local levels.

“It has been shown time and time again that racial profiling is an ineffective and counter-productive law enforcement practice,” said Rights Working Group Executive Director Margaret Huang. “When law enforcement officers use race, religion, ethnicity or national origin as the reason to stop, detain, interrogate or arrest people--in situations not tied to a specific crime or criminal behavior--they waste time and resources that would be better spent on smart targeted enforcement to protect the public. Furthermore, racial profiling instills fear and distrust among targeted communities, making them less likely to cooperate with investigations or call police when victimized.”

Huang’s statements were made in connection with the Nov. 4 House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security hearing entitled: “21st Century Law Enforcement: How Smart Policing Targets Criminal Behavior.” (Rights Working Group submitted written testimony for the hearing)

Following the Sept. 11 attacks, racial profiling has increased dramatically under new and revised government policies and programs—often launched in the name of national security—that have disproportionately targeted Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim and South Asian communities for surveillance, stops, searches, interrogations and detentions.

Recent evidence shows that a number of federal agencies have promoted racial profiling through the use of biased training information about Muslims and Islam. In targeting Muslim, Arab, Sikh and South Asian communities, the federal government has engaged in aggressive use of civil immigration laws, criminal laws and criminal procedures in a sweeping, ineffective and discriminatory manner. Numerous studies have shown that when police focus on race as one of several predictive factors, they pay less attention to actual criminal behavior.

The New York Police Department (NYPD) has relied on identity-based intelligence gathering, using census data to infiltrate ethnic communities. As discovered by a months-long investigation by the Associated Press, “The department has dispatched teams of undercover officers, known as ‘rakers,’ into minority neighborhoods as part of a human mapping program . . . They’ve monitored daily life in bookstores, bars, cafes and nightclubs. Police have also used informants, known as “mosque crawlers,” to monitor sermons, even when there’s no evidence of wrongdoing. NYPD officials have scrutinized imams and gathered intelligence on cab drivers and food cart vendors, jobs often done by Muslims.”

In addition, Latino communities have been targeted in the name of border security and immigration enforcement. For example, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has created partnerships with local and state police agencies, through programs such as Secure Communities, where the fingerprints of those arrested are sent by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to DHS databases to check on immigration status. Secure Communities creates an incentive for state and local law enforcement agents to arrest people for pre-textual reasons so that their immigration status can be checked during the booking process. A recent report by the Warren Institute at the University of California-Berkeley Law School which analyzed connections between DHS’ own data and demographic information indicated that Latinos are disproportionately impacted by Secure Communities.

A separate Warren Institute study showed a 150 percent increase in the arrests of Latinos in Irving, Texas, from April 2007 to September 2007, after the Irving Police Department began a partnership with ICE that gave police round-the-clock access to check the immigration status of those they arrested.

Racial profiling continues to be a fact of life in many communities of color within the context of the “war on drugs.”Data uncovered recently through litigation by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) in Floyd v. City of New York, revealed that in 2009, a record 575,304 people were stopped by the NYPD, 87 percent of whom were Black and Hispanic individuals—although they comprise approximately 25 percent and 28 percent of New York City’s total population respectively. Despite the disproportionate number of stops of Blacks, Whites were more likely to be found with drugs, guns or other contraband.

Effective, smart policing does not focus on race, national origin, religion or ethnicity to prevent crimes but, instead, examines evidence of criminal activity.

Huang calls on Congress “to exercise bold leadership” on this issue and pass the End Racial Profiling Act of 2011, which was recently introduced by Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Maryland) in the U.S. Senate.

“We need Congress to prohibit law enforcement policies and programs that encourage racial profiling, target groups unfairly, and clearly violate the due process and equal protection clauses enshrined in the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution,” said Huang.

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