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New Report Unveils Systematic Racism

Panel of NNIRR representatives at the press conference in Oakland on August 8. (Left to right): David Bacon, Rand Quinn, Eunice Cho, Arnoldo Garcia, Renee Saucedo, Clara Luz Navarro and Maria Jimenez.

NNIRR delegates prepare for the U.N. World Conference

By Ji Hyun Lim

Just weeks before the third United Nations World Conference Against Racism, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, which will be held in Durban, South Africa, the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR) released a report addressing the issue of anti-immigrant racism in the United States.

Entitled From the Borderline to the Colorline, the report is based on a nationwide survey of conditions for immigrant communities conducted by 25 organizations. The report examines everything from work to housing to hate-violence and concludes that “immigration policy continues to reflect deep racial bias.”

Convened by the NNIRR, the Immigrant Rights Working Group (IRWG) — an organization made up of immigrant and refugee community groups and advocates from around the country — will send 69 delegates to the U.N. convention.

The National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium (NAPALC) is the only organization that monitors anti-Asian violence and produces an annual report called the Audit of Violence. They have systematically monitored hate crimes against Asian Pacific Islander Americans and found they often coincide with anti-immigrant violence. Over 66 percent of the APIA community are newly arrived immigrants and many have been targets of racial profiling by law officials, employment discrimination and unequal treatment with the legal and criminal justice system, according to NAPALC’s report.

On any given day, the INS holds some 20,000 people in detention. In 1996, less than 11 percent of immigrant detainees had legal representation in their immigration proceedings, and as non-citizens, they were not eligible for publicly-funded attorneys.

Findings Released

In light of these statistical findings, press conferences were held in New York, Chicago, Oakland and Atlanta, where the NNIRR unveiled the startling report.

In Oakland, a dozen reporters crowded into a small office where panelists introduced the findings of the report. The speakers sat in front of a colorful mural of multicultural children painted by Oakland artist Daniel Camacho, as they spoke passionate words about the importance of immigrant rights.

Panelists pointed out that anti-immigration racism is on the rise. Based on a survey of over twenty cities in the United States, the From the Borderline report cites patterns of racism that have been exacerbated by stringent immigration laws and unfairly carried out by law enforcement officials.

Eunice Cho, a representative of the NNIRR, said the color of one’s skin, accent or national origin has made immigrants extremely vulnerable to being illegally detained, deported and denied legal status and protection. The report cites specific cases of INS police abuse and discrimination. Cho gave an example from the report.

“One woman had a son who was very sick. Because she did not bring his birth certificate with him on her way to the hospital, the INS stopped her and forbade her entrance to the hospital because she was not a United States citizen,” Cho said. “She called her husband to bring the birth certificate and before he could get to the hospital, her son died.”

According to Cho, these stories are really common in immigrant communities and don’t get heard in the mainstream media. “Because immigration laws proceed human rights in the United States, individual protection is often compromised,” said Cho.

Eunice Cho, a representative of the NNIRR.

“It’s gender, racially segregated in terms of integration,” Cho said. “These women suffer a greater degree of exploitation and smaller degree of protection than other workers in the United States.”

She adds, “Many people use a racially coded symbolism. For example, people stereotype immigrants as hordes of pregnant women of color running over the border to have their babies. In reality, that’s really not the case. The reality is that women of color-immigrant people in the United States are really the backbone of the United States economy. They are the people who suffer the most in terms of trying to make the economy work. They are displaced because of the effects of the economy and globalized systems of the world.”

Spreading the Word

The Immigrant Rights Working group hopes to raise awareness about the conditions of immigrants in the United States and make sure that the United States meets its international obligations by signing an international treaty to prevent racism. In the report, IRWG recommends that the U.S. government “recognize the inter-connection between globalization, displacement, migration and affirm the right of workers to cross international borders,” among other things.

Before the conference on racism, there will be a forum for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that are working on these issues. During this pre-conference, there will be two workshops on hate crimes and the Asian Diaspora.

“The two conferences have declarations and program of action,” NAPALC staff attorney Aryani Ong said. “We’ve been working with immigration and refugee rights to make sure that certain issues related to immigrants are addressed in the document. The NGOs can participate by lobbying their government or other governments to include the desired language to that declaration and program of action.”

The following week is the actual UN world conference against racism, the official meeting for members, states and countries.

IRWG plans to gather immigration rights activists who will be able to raise worldwide attention to the condition of immigrants of the United States. They will also attempt to organize different immigrant communities throughout the community to develop a point of action for the world conference. The delegates hope to build the knowledge of community leaders around the international human rights system in order to open up discussion.