Not too long, one of our clients was unexpectedly approached by local law enforcement while he was washing his car in the driveway. These officers, who are part of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), questioned our client for over 30 minutes, including detailed questions about his wife’s citizenship application, her family in Afghanistan, their kids, and their involvement in the local community. JTTF deputizes local police officers as FBI agents, giving them often unchecked powers to target, surveil, and harass communities, especially Black, Arab, Muslim, and immigrant communities.
Days and weeks later, our client still has no idea why he was questioned. Instead, he and his family now live with a heightened fear of unjust surveillance and profiling. They worry that our client’s wife will be denied citizenship for no discernible reason aside from their religion and national origin. They know, like countless others, that JTTF lets local police departments open investigations into community members without any evidence or indication or wrongdoing - and that threat creates a perpetual state of limbo.
Like many related programs that the U.S. government created after 9/11, JTTF is rooted in inherent suspicion of people who are Muslim or are from Muslim-majority country. The program surveils and punishes people because of the communities they live in, the religion they practice, the places they travel, and other basic aspects of life.
In the face of suspicionless state-sponsored surveillance, profiling, and racism, we work with community members and partners to defend people’s civil liberties and dismantle the unjust policing and surveillance of immigrant communities, particularly Arab, Muslim, Middle Eastern, South Asian, Black communities.
Disentangling Local Law Enforcement from FBI Task Force
Over the past several years, we’ve worked with community members and local organizations to encourage cities to end their partnerships with JTTF. In late 2020, following community-led advocacy, Oakland became the third major city to sever its JTTF efforts and prioritize residents’ safety and equity over criminalizing people based on who they are.
In Oakland, Muslim, Black, and Yemeni communities and over 30 local civil rights groups, including Advancing Justice - Asian Law Caucus, the Council on American-Islamic Relations San Francisco Bay Area chapter, Secure Justice, and the Yemeni Alliance Committee, organized together to educate policymakers about the JTTF’s discriminatory practices. At an October 2020 Oakland City Council meeting, residents and advocates packed the halls, sharing testimony for hours. Late in the night, councilmembers voted unanimously to end the city’s participation in JTTF, making Oakland the third major city in the U.S. to take this important step for its residents’ civil rights.
- The Mercury News: Oakland withdraws police from FBI joint terrorism task force
- San Francisco Chronicle: After 9/11, a 20-year civil rights journey for two women and the Bay Area Muslim community
Defunding Anti-Muslim and Anti-Black Surveillance and Criminalization
We also work with Black, African, and Muslim communities in California to defund “Countering Violent Extremism” programs in California, which use government pressure and funding to turn gathering places like schools, mosques, and recreation centers into sites for suspicionless community surveillance.
California’s surveillance program targets Arab, Muslim, Black, and immigrant communities, particularly young people, by marking for suspicion what makes them who they are, including their religion, ethnicity, language, or political opinions. For example, in San Bernardino, the program gave funding to the school district to train teachers to identify extremism among its student body, which is about 75% Latinx and 12% Black. In the past year, the NoPVEinCA coalition and community members convinced state legislators to deny funding for this program.
- Council on American-Islamic Relations: Explaining the Problematic CVE/PVE Program
- Brennan Center for Justice: Why Countering Violent Extremism Programs Are Bad Policy
Learn more about our work to undo hate and violence against those impacted by unjust, ineffective, and biased national security policies.