Memo to the Biden Admin
September 2021 marks two decades since the advent of the U.S. government’s “War on Terror” and the implementation of a range of policies and programs justified under the broad and often ill-defined rubric of national security. These policies, all justified under the guise of protecting “national security,” unjustly surveil, profile, and criminalize Black, African, Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian (BAMEMSA) communities.
Our new memorandum sent to the Biden administration, “Unconstitutional and Unjust: Dismantling 20 Years of Discriminatory ‘National Security’ Policy,” documents some of these policies, all of which continue today, and many of which are uncritically accepted by both government officials and mainstream civil society.
The memorandum, issued by Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Center for Constitutional Rights, Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility (CLEAR), and Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans (PANA), also includes recommendations to help end these discriminatory policies and attempt to repair the harms they have inflicted.
