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Rights groups challenge use of data WASHINGTON, August 13, 2004 - A coalition of 23 civil rights and immigrants rights groups today called for a probe into the circumstances surrounding the provision of census data on Arab-Americans to the US Department of Homeland Security. The News York Times reported on July 29 that the Census Bureau has provided specially tabulated population statistics on Arab-Americans to the Department of Homeland Security, including detailed information on how many people of Arab backgrounds live in certain ZIP codes. The tabulations were produced in August 2002 and December 2003 in response to requests from what is now the Customs and Border Protection division of the Department of Homeland Security. One set listed cities with more than 1,000 Arab-Americans. The second, far more detailed, provided ZIP-code-level breakdowns of Arab-American populations, sorted by country of origin. The categories provided were Egyptian, Iraqi, Jordanian, Lebanese, Moroccan, Palestinian, Syrian and two general categories, "Arab/Arabic" and "Other Arab." Christiana Halsey, a spokeswoman for Customs and Border Protection, was quoted by the New York Times as saying that the requests were made to help the agency identify in which airports to post signs and pamphlets in Arabic. "The information is not in any way being used for law enforcement purposes," she said. "It's being used to educate the traveler. We're simply using basic demographic information to help us communicate U.S. laws and regulations to the traveling public." Brushing aside the department's explanation that it had only used the data to create Arab-language signs at US airports, the groups said the issue merited a "proper, documented investigation" and, if necessary, congressional hearings. "These actions are a violation of the public's trust in the Census Bureau, and a troubling reminder of one of our nation's darkest days when the sharing of similar information resulted in the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II," the coalition said in a statement. While US officials maintained that their interest was innocuous, it heightened concerns of racial profiling of Arab Americans, who have been the focus of intense official surveillance in the wake of the September 11 attacks. In their statement Friday, the groups said officials had failed to show they had acted consistently by seeking out similar information on other ethnic groups and tailoring airport signs for them too. Almost two dozen civil rights and minority groups signed the statement, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the National Immigration Forum. Joint statement on Census-DHS We, the undersigned civil liberties, faith-based, civic and human rights organizations, express grave concern regarding the issuance of tabulations on the Arab-American population, prepared by the Census Bureau to the United States Customs Service in 2002 and, later, the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection at the Department of Homeland Security in 2003. The information, provided by the Census Bureau to Customs includes specific data on the Arab American population in the United States, broken down by population size (1000 or more Arab Americans) as well as by zip-code. Troublingly, the data are further delineated by the specific ancestry or national-origin of the Arab Americans. These actions are a violation of the public's trust in the census bureau, and a troubling reminder of one of our nation's darkest days when the sharing of similar information resulted in the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. The explanation so far provided by the Department of Homeland Security, stating that the information was used only to create language-specific signage for outbound airport operations, does not justify the need for any data on where Arab Americans live, nor does it justify where they live by zip code. Furthermore, there is no rational relationship between of the national origin of Arab Americans (i.e. Egyptian, Lebanese, Iraqi, Syrian, Palestinian, Jordanian, etc.) and Arabic signage at airports. Moreover, most (98%) of Arab Americans speak and read English fluently. Hence the rational for the data requirements is inconsistent with reality. Additionally, while stating otherwise, the Department of Homeland Security and the Census Bureau have failed to provide proof that similar information related to other ethnicities was requested and/or obtained for similar language-specific signage in languages other than Arabic during the same period. In conclusion, this troubling issue calls for an immediate and clear explanation from the Department of Homeland Security, a proper documented investigation, and, if necessary, hearings by the United States Congress. List of organizations: 1) American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) 2) American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) 3) Arab American Institute (AAI) 4) Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS) 5) Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) 6) Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) 7) Coalition De Derechos Humanos - Alianza Indigena Sin Fronteras 8) Congress of Arab American Organizations-Michigan (CAAO-MI) 9) Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) 10) Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) 11) Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC) 12) Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) 13) Lebanese American Heritage Club (LAHC) 14) LaRaza Centro Legal (LRCL) 15) Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (LIRS) 16) Migration Policy and Resource Center - Urban and Environmental Policy Institute (Occidental College) 17) National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) Educational Fund 18) National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium (NAPALC) 19) National Immigration Forum 20) National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild 21) National Network of Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR). 22) South Asian American Leaders of Tomorrow (SAALT) 23) United American Lebanese Federation (UALF) ADC Chapters (expressly endorsing statement): 1) ADC-Austin Chapter 2) ADC-Greater Detroit Chapter 3) ADC-Greater Kalamazoo Chapter 4) ADC-Houston Chapter 5) ADC-Kentucky Chapter 6) ADC-Los Angeles/Orange County Chapter 7) ADC-New Jersey Chapter 8) ADC-New Orleans Chapter 9) ADC-New York Chapter 10) ADC-Philadelphia Chapter 11) ADC-Sacramento Chapter 12) ADC-San Diego Chapter 13) ADC-San Francisco Chapter 14) ADC-Seattle Chapter 15) ADC-Tucson Chapter 16) ADC-Washington, DC Area Chapter 17) ADC-Wisconsin Chapter Source: Media reports |