Author Archives: SAALT

SAALT Sunset Statement 

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To our SAALT community,

After 24 years in existence, South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) will be dissolving as an organization and sunsetting at the end of 2024. 

The organization’s history is well documented and archived on the SAALT website and with the South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA). A detailed timeline of our history will continue to live here.

OVERVIEW

2000 - 2013

SAALT started as a leadership development organization in 2000 for South Asian Americans. 

Following 9/11, the organization changed its mission to focus on protecting the civil rights of all South Asians. This was in response to the interpersonal and state violence aimed at American Muslim, Arab, and South Asian communities. We filled a critical need at the national level of protecting South Asian communities in the wake of violent backlash following 9/11, using federal policy and advocacy as our primary strategies, in partnership with longstanding, local and regional South Asian organizations.

2014 - 2024

In the last 10 years, SAALT began shifting its work more explicitly towards racial justice, in response to the police brutality of Sureshbhai Patel in Alabama and the rising Black Lives Matter movement. We began challenging the systems and structures of racism upheld by our government through federal policy. 

In the last 5 years, we have come to understand that our work to address injustice needs to be informed by our own ancient homegrown oppression: caste. Caste is an identity marker that shapes all South Asians and is the oldest barrier to organizing across a deep diversity of South Asian communities. Even with a racial justice framework, we realized we did not have the capacity to fully serve the vast majority of South Asians, because we were lacking an analysis of caste.

The way other racialized communities in the U.S. have been able to come together and organize does not necessarily reflect a trajectory that our communities can adopt. Today, there is much wider recognition (thanks to the tremendous work of Dalit, Bahujan, and Adivasi communities), that the Hindutva movement, rooted in caste oppression, is the greatest threat to the well-being of all South Asian communities. Building the power to dismantle the magnitude of this force requires a commitment to becoming anti-caste through study, struggle, and relational building on the basis of caste. We felt called to practice a culturally appropriate, distinctly South Asian justice framework, which required us to shift towards an anti-caste cultural strategy. 

SAALT’S ARC OF TRANSFORMATION (2014 - 2024)

Ten years ago, SAALT began intentionally assessing the organization’s programming and policy change work through surveys, program evaluations, check-ins with partner organizations, and internal staff feedback. Overall, these assessments revealed the need for an evolution in SAALT’s vision, mission, and values.

In 2019, SAALT underwent a challenging but necessary leadership transition. The remaining staff inherited a major lack of investment in administrative infrastructure, as well as fractured relationships with partners and funders. This is when all of SAALT’s historic programming ended – the biennial South Asian Summit, the Young Leaders Institute, and We Build Community regranting program. To address the impact of this major crisis point – both internally and on our partners – we updated our vision, mission, and values. We attempted to shift our programming and rebuild the organization for the next three years, all without pausing.

This included:

  1. organizing internal trainings on caste supremacy led by Equality Labs;
  2. co-hosting the first-ever congressional briefing on caste in the U.S. in partnership with Equality Labs;
  3. supporting local organizing efforts to free detained South Asian asylum seekers, many who were facing life threatening danger in India for opposing Modi’s government; and working to build a pipeline of legal and language interpretation assistance for the growing number of detained South Asian migrants in the U.S.;
  4. ending our data collection and analysis of individual incidents of hate violence to focus on the root causes of this violence stemming from our federal policies;
  5. initiating efforts to reshape and align the National Coalition of South Asian Organizations (NCSO), after knowing for years that some groups in the coalition supported the spying, surveillance, and doxxing of other members.

During this time, we were confronted with the reality that as our leadership, values, and policy work became more progressive, our access to the federal decision making spaces we once participated in was revoked. We were no longer being regularly invited to influence federal policy on immigration and hate violence. In addition, we were no longer willing to work in coalitions with Hindutva serving organizations. We began to question if federal policy reform could continue to be our theory of change.

SAALT historically focused on South Asians in the U.S. and did not take into account the dramatic political, cultural, and social shifts happening in South Asia and the diaspora. We needed to understand the impact of policies in our countries of origin, the movements responding to them, and the impact of both on our populations in the U.S. The container we needed to do this kind of work required an anti-caste analysis. We tried to balance learning, changing, and implementing new programs. As a result, we faced high staff turnover and burnout, interpersonal conflict, and administrative challenges.

Up to this point, SAALT did not have cultural practices to build our internal alignment,  understand our contradictions, and inform how we move the work. And, yet we were experiencing the cultural pressure to produce programs as a national nonprofit responding to multiple crises.

We recognized the enduring identity crisis of being a historically high caste South Asian nonprofit. We could not keep reprogramming our work, without first addressing caste at the level of self, staff, and board.

JUST TRANSITION + CHRYSALIS

“It makes sense that in 2020, when the world paused for a moment, SAALT too was turning inward to ask, ‘Who are we and what is our role in seeking liberation?’ What we came away with is that we know we have to center an anti-caste analysis to even begin to understand the impact we want to make.” – SAALT board member

In 2022, SAALT’s staff and a newly reconstituted board asked ourselves: what would becoming anti-caste look and feel like? In response, we initiated a Just Transition to become an anti-caste institution.

STRUCTURAL SHIFTS

We decided to practice internally what we were beginning to learn from the anti-caste work of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar: that cultural change and social reform must precede any lasting political and economic reform. We did this by beginning to make specific structural shifts within the organization.

New Values

The first shift was to create a caste-centered values framework. This framework helped us understand how our other values (such as racial justice, gender justice, and disability justice) are informed by an anti-caste lens, and vice versa. We voted to focus our efforts on building an analysis of caste between board and staff to inform our internal practices first, before experimenting further with federal policy and advocacy on behalf of South Asian American communities. 

Shared Leadership

In 2023, we became an organization led by a team of four co-directors, accountable to our board. In total, we called ourselves the SAALT ecosystem, the collective stewarding this massive internal shift for the organization. Learning from the past, we voted to cease any remaining external programming and enter into a period of chrysalis in 2023. We met with our funders, completed any remaining deliverables and reports, and ceased solicitation of donations. We needed a full pause to deeply cleanse and emerge with clarity. SAALT as it was – with its rapid response work and internal crises – inhibited the contemplative space we needed to study caste, shift the consciousness of our leadership, and begin practicing new ways of being, from the inside out. 

Our co-directorship consisted of: one queer nonbinary high caste person and dog parent in her early 30s with roots in Durham, West Bengal, and Bangladesh; a Dalit woman, immigrant, and single mom in her early 50s from South India making home in the Deep South; a high caste woman and mom in her early 40s with roots in Atlanta and Tamil Nadu; and a high caste woman and dog parent in her late 30s with roots in Baltimore, Pakistan, and Punjab. This was the first time in SAALT's history that the majority of the staff was representing the U.S. South and the first time a Dalit person was on the leadership team.

Fist to Five Decision Making

In an effort to both acknowledge organizational hierarchy and engage in values aligned decision-making, we adopted a fist to five decision-making practice. We thank our conflict transformation coach, rusia mohiuddin, for helping us land on this practice. It enabled us to signal clearly when we arrived at a decision point and work toward consensus among the four co-directors until everyone could be at a 5 or in total agreement with a proposed decision. This was instrumental in building trust, moving through conflict, and making timely choices. And, it was a critical step toward shifting away from a crisis response culture that prioritized quick responses and heavy compromises.  

Salary Transparency

For the first time in SAALT’s history, we removed the ban on discussing salaries and made staff salaries fully transparent. We also created an equitable salary scale to significantly reduce the gap between the lowest paid and highest paid staff member. We are grateful to The Highlander Research and Education Center for providing the framework for this practice. 

CULTURAL AND RELATIONAL SHIFTS

This chrysalis period was a very mutative time for SAALT, which brought up collective anxiety and fear in each of us. We were frequently reminded of how valuable the investment in building deep relationships with each other was to sustaining this work and our bonds. 

One way we did this was through a story circle practice, a form of heart-centered storytelling, created by John O’Neal, a co-founder of the Free Southern Theater. We often opened our retreat time with this practice and listened to each person share their origin story. Making intentional time to hear each other’s stories over the course of two years generated space within our collective body to hold each other’s humanity and feel into the dynamism of our group. Caste oppression has manifested by keeping us deeply divided for thousands of years. It was no small thing to be building across our caste histories. This practice helped us build trust and made space for our multiple truths, discomforts, curiosities, contradictions, and doubts to co-exist. 

As an ecosystem, we committed to monthly political education sessions to build and embody our analysis of becoming anti-caste. For over a year, we read the seminal essay, Annihilation of Caste (AoC) by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar. We believe this is a foundational text for understanding the caste system and Dr. Ambedkar’s leadership in the anti-caste movement. 

Political education gave us a space to explore, reflect, and stretch our analysis of power. It informed how we were becoming a more values-aligned body, that was deepening our cultural understanding of our South Asianness through caste. We are deeply grateful to Baba Saheb, Periyar, Phule, the articulators and culture creators at Round Table India, Savari, Prabuddha, Shared Mirror, Sanghamitra, and Rap Toli for seeding and growing our anti-caste analysis.

Prior to chrysalis, the SAALT ecosystem worked with Dr. Khalid Anis Ansari, a Pasmanda Muslim scholar, who led us in a year-long six part series on caste, religion, and class with a focus on Islam. We are thankful to Dr. Ansari for opening our eyes to Pasmanda truths and assertions.

The story circle practice and regular political education generated more safety as we built our understanding, and faced our lack of understanding, about each other’s cultural and caste experiences. And still, conflict is inevitable. We attempted to build a culture of conflict transformation through feedback practices. However, we often struggled to keep our promise to prioritize this practice and fell into patterns of conflict avoidance. When conflict reached a breaking point, we found practitioners to hold processes with us to repair our relationships and transform ourselves through conflict, so that we could continue to be co-directors. We are deeply grateful to those that held us during these painful times, and who continue to hold us. Thank you for growing our muscle to struggle with each other’s feedback and contradictions, grounded in our commitment to being anti-caste.

Voices from our ecosystem on SAALT’s arc of transformation:

“I often use the imperfect analogy of, ‘Imagine a white social justice group operating without having any analysis of white supremacy. How impactful would their social change work really be?’ – to describe why we made this intervention and transition internally.”

“This is risky work. I was taking a lot of personal and professional risks to step into a deep relationships centered approach to practicing anti caste imagination, being in co-stewardship as a Dalit woman.” 

“As a Muslim, I have learned that some form of caste has affected my own family. The caste system predates all present day borders in South Asia, meaning that all of our identities have interacted with caste. Chrysalis just made sense. We could no longer just plod along and ask people to support work that we didn’t believe in while also trying to figure out what we believe in to re-evaluate and restructure.” 

“Caste prevents us from being a people who will show up for each other because it was designed precisely to maintain separation and isolation. And showing up for each other is a fundamental basis for building power.” 

“Given the oppressive, vile, violent oppression of casteism– not only are Hindus divided, but all practicing religions in South Asia are. Caste weakens South Asian identity. I think about the lack of South Asian shared identity that has to be addressed and acknowledged for a political home for our people to exist.” 

“The last year of chrysalis has been one of wonder. How often does one have the chance to face, reckon with, and start to unpack something one has grown up with, something so insidious, and woven into one’s identity? And on top of that, to do it with rigor and in community? 

SUNSET

As part of SAALT’s process of Just Transition, we chose to break ourselves open, re-imagine our organizational values, and challenge dominant non-profit and South Asian American culture. 

We tried reforming SAALT through a co-directorship and chrysalis, but the limitations of the structure did not allow for this transformation. We learned that we could not fully “pause.” The spaciousness we needed for anti-caste political education was frequently compromised by nonprofit compliance issues, fundraising urgencies, and targeted attacks from right wing groups.

It proved ever challenging to slow down, be relational, and have the focus required to unpack caste while simultaneously running SAALT as a national nonprofit. The work we needed to do was deeply cultural and had no “deliverables” for traditional funders.

The more we built our analysis and understood what being anti-caste in this day and age means, the more clarity we gained on how necessary social reform was, and how SAALT, is no longer the vehicle for it.  

We decided to say goodbye to this container that could not be reshaped. We will, however, continue building our anti-caste cultural strategy beyond SAALT’s closing.

HOPES FOR THE FUTURE

“Turn in any direction you like, caste is the monster that crosses your path. You cannot have political reform, you cannot have economic reform, unless you kill this monster.” –Dr. B.R. Ambedkar

One of the most important insights from AoC is Dr. Ambedkar’s assertion that cultural change or social reform must precede political reform. In this vein, here are our hopes for the future:

“What I hope this sunsetting makes possible is space. Space for those with energy and vision to both be responsive to this moment in time and also imagine a future for South Asian movement building centered in anti-caste analysis.”

“Sunsetting allows for anti-caste South Asian organizing and power building to emerge.” 

“I hope it supports us and those who witness us to generate stronger anti-caste formations which learn from the lessons of this experiment. I hope it supports healthy relationship building across caste communities, between high caste and DBA folks, rooted in mutual safety, dignity, and belonging for all South Asians.’'

“What moved me is the possibility to do place based anti caste work, responsibly produce knowledge and culture, build and sustain anti caste cultural infrastructure and transform how anti caste power is built through principled study and struggle.”

“We don’t have to have a national organization or a single national voice. We are actually getting out of the way and helping empower others who are more progressive and radical to take up the space. This sunset isn’t a disappearance, but a building ground for what’s to come. SAALT has built a foundation that has opened up abundant and new possibilities, hopefully to be filled by multiple entities and formations. We’re truly at a cultural turning point in the whole world.”

We are grateful for the many hands that were a part of creating and evolving SAALT.

The initiative of the founders who sought to show up for South Asian America in a time of national crisis. 

The many young staff members who helped shift the organization away from relying on policing as an antidote to harm, and towards generating community healing and safety.

The rigorous feedback from partners who knew a national organization aiming to represent all South Asians needed to show up better for caste oppressed, Muslim, queer, trans, and working class communities. 

The trust and thought partnership of Dalit and Pasmanda leaders who took the risk to transform a high caste institution. 

For the wins, the failures, the struggles, the courage, the kinship, the contradictions. From our hearts, thank you for your leadership. May our ending make way for a more just, loving, and sustainable anti-caste future for all of us.

In community and struggle,

The SAALT board and staff 

SAALT ENTERS PERIOD OF ORGANIZATIONAL TRANSFORMATION

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Dear Com­mu­ni­ty, 

We’re writ­ing to share a ground­break­ing shift for SAALT. We have entered chrysalis which will con­tin­ue through late 2024. Dur­ing this time, we are com­mit­ted to the following:

  • Build an analysis of caste. We have ceased exter­nal pro­gram­ming to focus our ener­gy towards devel­op­ing an indi­vid­ual and shared analy­sis of caste, through polit­i­cal edu­ca­tion, prin­ci­pled strug­gle, reflec­tion, and rela­tion­ship build­ing, start­ing with our own selves, bio­log­i­cal and cho­sen fam­i­lies, and our caste communities. 

  • Co-stewardship inside an accountable ecosystem. We have tran­si­tioned from an ED and Board non-prof­it mod­el, to a co-stew­ard­ship non­prof­it mod­el, held by a cir­cle of South Asian account­abil­i­ty part­ners com­mit­ted to build­ing an analy­sis of caste. 

Why chrysalis?

For years, SAALT has received feed­back that our orga­ni­za­tion is in a per­pet­u­al “iden­ti­ty crisis.” 

We’ve felt it too. Our core con­tra­dic­tion is not lost on us. We’re attempt­ing to build pow­er for all South Asians, while lack­ing a deep under­stand­ing of an ancient, home­grown oppres­sion: caste. For decades, caste has inher­ent­ly result­ed in social inequal­i­ty, which informs the posi­tion­al­i­ty of South Asians in the US. 

SAALT has much to cel­e­brate across its 20 year his­to­ry of con­ven­ing, coor­di­nat­ing and rep­re­sent­ing South Asian com­mu­ni­ties nation­al­ly. Simul­ta­ne­ous­ly, SAALT’s agen­da has pri­mar­i­ly been dri­ven by high caste lead­er­ship, coastal elit­ism and oth­er priv­i­leged South Asian com­mu­ni­ty urgen­cies. Through rela­tion­ship build­ing and deep lis­ten­ing with and to Dalit Bahu­jan com­mu­ni­ties, along­side our own study of caste, SAALT began the jour­ney towards chrysalis. The need for this became more evi­dent in 2019 when SAALT sup­port­ed asy­lum seek­ers flee­ing South Asia because of caste vio­lence. As a result, we are assert­ing that build­ing South Asian pow­er requires coura­geous lead­er­ship and a com­mit­ment to cul­tur­al trans­for­ma­tion that is root­ed in an analy­sis of caste.

If we sim­ply con­tin­ued the work of SAALT as is, we would over­look the essen­tial first step – to build an analy­sis of caste – through which we under­stand our South Asian­ness, and nav­i­gate the oth­er val­ues we hold dear. By not under­stand­ing caste, we lack a true under­stand­ing of our­selves and our peo­ples’ his­to­ries. We can nev­er ful­ly or authen­ti­cal­ly par­tic­i­pate in cre­at­ing a racial­ly, gen­der, eco­nom­i­cal­ly, dis­abil­i­ty, and envi­ron­men­tal­ly just world with­in our dias­poric com­mu­ni­ties. Nor can we be respon­si­ble co-con­spir­a­tors with oth­er com­mu­ni­ties of color.

Through­out our twen­ty year his­to­ry, SAALT’s advo­ca­cy, pol­i­cy, and pro­gram­ming have lacked this core foun­da­tion and at times have even been caste suprema­cist in nature as a result. This focused, inten­tion­al time to build a caste analy­sis is what is need­ed for us to be tru­ly trans­for­ma­tive as South Asian Amer­i­cans and as a South Asian Amer­i­can serv­ing institution. 

Our inten­tions must be aligned with our actions. There­fore, we are unapolo­get­i­cal­ly ded­i­cat­ing our time, resources, mon­ey, and spa­cious­ness to this first step through late 2024. 

Our ultimate vision

We take this step with clear con­vic­tion and this vision in mind:  to build and sus­tain an anti-caste insti­tu­tion­al cul­ture, struc­ture, and poten­tial change work that is root­ed in us relat­ing to each oth­er and the world as stew­ards of the anti-caste move­ment. We can only expect trans­for­ma­tion in the world if we prac­tice it first with each other.

In com­mu­ni­ty,

The SAALT co-stewards

SAALT launches new hate violence project

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Hearing, Mapping, and Contextualizing: How South Asian, Muslim, Sikh, and South West Asian (SAMSSWA) Hate Violence Survivors Perceive Healing and Justice

Why a new approach to addressing hate violence?

Since our for­ma­tion in 2001, SAALT has his­tor­i­cal­ly approached our work around end­ing hate vio­lence as a pol­i­cy- and doc­u­men­ta­tion-dri­ven insti­tu­tion, mean­ing that our efforts have been focused on col­lect­ing data on hate vio­lence impact­ing our com­mu­ni­ty and advo­cat­ing for fed­er­al hate crime leg­is­la­tion to rec­og­nize and pros­e­cute per­pe­tra­tors of indi­vid­ual inci­dents. After two decades we face the real­i­ty that hate vio­lence against com­mu­ni­ties of col­or has not decreased. And, that is because the root caus­es of this vio­lence are tied to the very poli­cies of the gov­ern­ment from which we kept seek­ing recourse. As a result, we find it urgent and imper­a­tive to engage in a more direct, sur­vivor-cen­tered way that is not just short-term reform, but heal­ing and trans­for­ma­tive over the long-term. 

We are liv­ing in a water­shed moment, with great poten­tial for both hope and harm. Hate vio­lence has surged in America—from police bru­tal­i­ty against Black Amer­i­cans to the attacks tar­get­ing East Asian Amer­i­cans and those racial­ized as East Asian. Fight­ing hate vio­lence is vital—now more than ever—and the South Asian com­mu­ni­ty must build coali­tions with oth­er com­mu­ni­ties of color. 

Our new approach to hate vio­lence, launched in 2022, is to enable the par­tic­i­pa­tion and lead­er­ship of hate vio­lence sur­vivors by think­ing out­side con­ven­tion­al par­a­digms of heal­ing and jus­tice, often tied to pol­i­cy and law enforce­ment. Instead, we will offer trans­for­ma­tive jus­tice (TJ) as a modal­i­ty of heal­ing. We must be com­mit­ted to hon­or­ing and uplift­ing the inter­re­lat­ed prax­es of abo­li­tion and trans­for­ma­tive jus­tice in Black and Indige­nous com­mu­ni­ties as well as the lead­er­ship of BIPOC folks, many of whom iden­ti­fy as LGBTQI+, in shap­ing abo­li­tion and trans­for­ma­tive jus­tice over the cen­turies, includ­ing those at Project NIA, INCITE!, Bay Area Trans­for­ma­tive Jus­tice Col­lec­tive, Gen­er­a­tionFIVE, Cre­ative Inter­ven­tions, Inter­rupt­ing Crim­i­nal­iza­tion, and Sur­vived & Punished. 

Such prax­es and lead­er­ship arise from America’s very found­ing being premised upon—and defined by—hate vio­lence. The cre­ation and per­pet­u­a­tion of Amer­i­can sys­tems and insti­tu­tions were pred­i­cat­ed both on the dis­place­ment and geno­cide of Indige­nous peo­ple and the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. Such sys­temic vio­lence root­ed in hatred thus formed the basis and roots of carcer­al ide­ol­o­gy, with racist xeno­pho­bia serv­ing as the pri­ma­ry sen­ti­ment. Trans­for­ma­tive jus­tice, with roots in end­ing child sex­u­al abuse, asks, as Mia Min­gus writes: “What kinds of com­mu­ni­ty infra­struc­ture can we cre­ate to sup­port more safe­ty, trans­paren­cy, sus­tain­abil­i­ty, care and con­nec­tion?” and “What do sur­vivors need?” We aspire to dis­cuss trans­for­ma­tive jus­tice with sur­vivors and then go to the next lev­el by active­ly visu­al­iz­ing a TJ-led com­mu­ni­ty, with the vir­tu­al hang­outs over food, work­shops, inter­views, and an in-per­son heal­ing ses­sion serv­ing as safe and pow­er­ful alter­na­tive out­lets of heal­ing, expres­sion, and needs.

Methodology

We will select 15 sur­vivors affect­ed by inter­per­son­al and struc­tur­al hate crimes—including but not lim­it­ed to ones dri­ven by racism, Islam­o­pho­bia, casteism, col­orism, gen­der, sex­u­al­i­ty, immi­gra­tion sta­tus, phys­i­cal and men­tal abil­i­ty, and a his­to­ry of carcerality—both at the hands of unknown attack­ers (e.g., gen­dered Islam­o­pho­bia, harass­ment and vio­lence in pub­lic spaces, van­dal­ism and prop­er­ty destruc­tion, and dox­ing and oth­er forms of dig­i­tal vio­lence) and at the hands of known attack­ers (e.g., gen­der-based and domes­tic vio­lence, child abuse, and insti­tu­tion­al dis­crim­i­na­tion in work­places, health and edu­ca­tion settings).

We are orga­niz­ing dis­cus­sions with our Nation­al Coali­tion of South Asian Orga­ni­za­tions (NCSO) part­ners and oth­er South Asian orga­ni­za­tions and indi­vid­u­als who direct­ly work with sur­vivors and learn­ing from their work, ask­ing them to col­lab­o­rate on the project as work­shop facil­i­ta­tors, and iden­ti­fy­ing sur­vivors in their net­works who would be eager and inspired to par­take in this project. By con­nect­ing and engag­ing in a rec­i­p­ro­cal rela­tion­ship with these orga­ni­za­tions, we hope to build with and uni­fy the NCSO and our larg­er community—another one of our project goals, as exhib­it­ed by the work­shop facil­i­ta­tors we will invite. 

Timeline

This project will have six mov­ing parts from Sep­tem­ber 2022 to August/September/October 2023 in the fol­low­ing order: 

  • (1) an ini­tial pre-inter­view between the Heal­ing & Jus­tice Researcher and the sur­vivors, 1:1, on form­ing rela­tion­ships, likes and dis­likes, etc., to estab­lish a rela­tion­ship filled with trust, mutu­al dig­ni­ty, reci­procity, agency, and familiarity
  • (2) an online demo­graph­ic ques­tion­naire that will allow our researcher to cre­ate small groups dur­ing the in-per­son heal­ing ses­sion based on answer and iden­ti­ty align­ment and to dis­ag­gre­gate the data
  • (3) six vir­tu­al hang­outs for the 15 sur­vivors to bond over food, to pre­emp­tive­ly set up the sur­vivor net­work that will sus­tain this project. The last vir­tu­al hang­out in August/September/October 2023 will serve as a reflec­tion ses­sion on the project and its process. 
  • (4) back-and-forth between 13 work­shops and (5) 10 1:1 semi-struc­tured inter­views with our researcher. These work­shops, which will also help build coali­tions by includ­ing speak­ers from with­in and beyond the NCSO (e.g., Sikh Coali­tion, Jen­ny Bhatt, Sur­vived & Pun­ished), will pro­vide the back­ground infor­ma­tion nec­es­sary to devel­op­ing sur­vivors’ informed per­spec­tives on hate crime leg­is­la­tion, restora­tive and trans­for­ma­tive jus­tice, police reform, etc. 
    • Two of these workshops—one, on what is heal­ing and two, on what is justice—will be survivor-led. 
    • Detailed, safe, and inno­v­a­tive inter­views will help iden­ti­fy per­spec­tives on the police, hate crime leg­is­la­tion, and alter­na­tives to the police such as trans­for­ma­tive and heal­ing jus­tice. They will explore access to heal­ing path­ways, such as pos­i­tive and mal­adap­tive cop­ing skills, com­mu­ni­ty sup­port, men­tal and phys­i­cal health ser­vices. Sur­vivors will offer their per­spec­tives on jus­tice, such as police involve­ment in their cas­es, access to resti­tu­tion struc­tures such as restora­tive jus­tice cir­cles and vic­tim-com­pen­sa­tion funds, and def­i­n­i­tions of fair­ness, safe­ty, and account­abil­i­ty. They will express their thoughts and needs on relat­ed issues such as gun con­trol, edu­ca­tion­al reform, food jus­tice, and eco­nom­ic security. 
    • Our Heal­ing and Jus­tice Researcher wrote the sur­vey and inter­view ques­tion­naires and con­sult­ed 50 schol­ars, orga­ni­za­tions, and heal­ing prac­ti­tion­ers (e.g., Restora­tive Jus­tice for Oak­land Youth, South Asian Sex­u­al and Men­tal Health Alliance, and Puni Kalra, founder of the Sikh Heal­ing Col­lec­tive fol­low­ing the Oak Creek shoot­ing) both inside and beyond the NCSO in the process for feed­back. An excerpt of the ques­tion­naires can be found here.
  • (6) We will hold an in-per­son week­end ses­sion in July 2023 to max­i­mize heal­ing. Sur­vivors will spend the first day engag­ing in activ­i­ties offered by our Somat­ics Con­sul­tant; cre­ate some­thing of their choice (e.g., a meal, song, dance, gar­den, cloth­ing); and close the day with activ­i­ties offered by our Heal­ing Jus­tice Con­sul­tant. The sec­ond day, sur­vivors will engage in activ­i­ties offered by our Somat­ics Con­sul­tant and a sto­ry­telling cir­cle facil­i­tat­ed by our Restora­tive Jus­tice Facil­i­ta­tor as well as map out a future world (What does it con­sist of? What makes it safe, fair, and just?) with the help of our Trans­for­ma­tive Jus­tice Facilitator.

Why now? 

We will har­ness the pow­er of speak­ing and lis­ten­ing. Greater infor­ma­tion, freer par­tic­i­pa­tion and informed analy­sis, par­tic­u­lar­ly in rela­tion to anti-Black racism in the US, will help us devel­op a shared lan­guage for change togeth­er with our NCSO and beyond. We will present our find­ings from the sur­veys and inter­views, and make rec­om­men­da­tions for com­mu­ni­ty-based advo­ca­cy orga­ni­za­tions, men­tal health and legal pro­fes­sion­als, TJ prac­ti­tion­ers, and gov­ern­ment offi­cials through a pub­lic, inter­ac­tive web­site with mul­ti­ple purposes—a toolk­it, mem­oir, report, doc­u­ment, and historiography. 

We will also be offer­ing the fol­low­ing ser­vices and com­pen­sa­tions: (1) an infor­ma­tion and informed con­sent form empha­siz­ing con­sent (i.e., vol­un­tary and selec­tive par­tic­i­pa­tion), con­fi­den­tial­i­ty, anonymi­ty, and full veto pow­er over writ­ten con­tent; (2) $2,500 com­pen­sa­tion to each sur­vivor as an expres­sion of our grat­i­tude for their time, com­mit­ment, and fullest selves; (3) indi­vid­ual and group coach­ing ses­sions with a Licensed Clin­i­cal Psy­chol­o­gist; (4) local­ized resource sheets (e.g., con­tacts to faith-based lead­ers); (5) somat­ic and heal­ing jus­tice activ­i­ties; (6) trans­la­tion and inter­pre­ta­tion sup­port; (7) a reflec­tion cir­cle and sur­vey on the process at the last vir­tu­al hang­out; and (8) a sur­vivor-led net­work out­liv­ing and out­last­ing the project. 

This project has numer­ous impli­ca­tions. Fol­low­ing the schol­ar­ly inter­est in and debate over the effi­ca­cy of Brazil and India’s all-women police sta­tions in address­ing gen­der-based vio­lence and lis­ten­ing to sur­vivors, our insights might well be extrap­o­lat­ed to the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tems of oth­er nations and inspire glob­al models. 

Hate vio­lence takes too many lives every day. We rec­og­nize the urgency of a response, and this project, with its demo­c­ra­t­ic ways of sto­ry­telling cen­tered on a just tran­si­tion, or “a vision-led, uni­fy­ing and place-based set of prin­ci­ples, process­es, and prac­tices that build eco­nom­ic and polit­i­cal pow­er to shift from an extrac­tive econ­o­my to a regen­er­a­tive economy”—is our contribution. 

This project will con­tribute to the trans­for­ma­tion of jus­tice for indi­vid­u­als and com­mu­ni­ties. It will expand the notion of jus­tice from sim­ply one sur­vivor going to the gov­ern­ment for help, to one where an entire soci­ety is deeply aware of struc­tur­al vio­lence and injus­tice, and open to form­ing new and more equi­table method­olo­gies and institutions. 

This mul­ti­lay­ered project will involve a rec­i­p­ro­cal rela­tion­ship with par­tic­i­pants, in which we will uncov­er our deep­est, truest selves. We will share our stories—the way in which we are sto­ried, unsto­ried and resto­ried. We will dream of rad­i­cal­ly new worlds. And through this indi­vid­ual and col­lec­tive work, we will devel­op a roadmap for rad­i­cal heal­ing and justice.

Ways to get involved

Join this pro­jec­t’s mail­ing list!

Statement on House Judiciary Hearing on Discrimination and Civil Rights of Muslim Arab and South Asian Communities

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Feb­ru­ary 25, 2022

Dear Chair­man Nadler and Rank­ing Mem­ber Jordan,

As orga­ni­za­tions that work with­in Mus­lim, Arab and South Asian com­mu­ni­ties at the local and nation­al lev­el, we are pleased to see the House Judi­cia­ry Com­mit­tee hold­ing an impor­tant March 1st Hear­ing on Dis­crim­i­na­tion and Civ­il Rights of Mus­lim, Arab, and South Asian com­mu­ni­ties. We rec­og­nize the tremen­dous work orga­ni­za­tions have done to advo­cate for con­gres­sion­al hear­ings that cen­ter the ero­sion of civ­il lib­er­ties for our communities.

How­ev­er, as orga­ni­za­tions who are work­ing with impact­ed com­mu­ni­ties, we are con­cerned about the fram­ing of the hear­ing. We write to offer rec­om­men­da­tions for future hear­ings per­tain­ing to our com­mu­ni­ties. Such hear­ings are part of the offi­cial his­tor­i­cal record and often end up paint­ing a nar­ra­tive and push­ing pol­i­cy rec­om­men­da­tions that fail to clear­ly name state vio­lence, struc­tur­al Islam­o­pho­bia, and the War on Ter­ror poli­cies as the dri­vers of indi­vid­ual acts of inter­per­son­al vio­lence. South Asian Amer­i­cans Lead­ing Togeth­er (SAALT) issued reports in 2017 and 2018 doc­u­ment­ing the direct cor­re­la­tion between polit­i­cal rhetoric, fed­er­al poli­cies, and the increase in inci­dents of hate vio­lence, which con­tin­ues today.

Increas­ing­ly, we have found that the lim­it­ed frame­work of civ­il rights and civ­il lib­er­ties that often focus­es exclu­sive­ly on secu­ri­ty and dis­crim­i­na­tion does not ade­quate­ly cap­ture the broad impacts of sys­temic vio­lence on our com­mu­ni­ties, which include eco­nom­ic, health, hous­ing, and edu­ca­tion, among oth­er social deter­mi­nants. This lim­i­ta­tion has con­tin­ued to fail in com­pre­hen­sive­ly and sub­stan­tive­ly address­ing the scope and mag­ni­tude of the vio­lence our com­mu­ni­ties have expe­ri­enced in the twen­ty years after 9/11.

We reit­er­ate the requests in our state­ment for the record to the House Judi­cia­ry Com­mit­tee in response to your April, 2019 Hear­ing on Hate Crimes and White Nation­al­ism to once again take the fol­low­ing rec­om­men­da­tions in plan­ning hearings:

  • Broad­en the frame of “civ­il rights and lib­er­ties” to bet­ter under­stand how state vio­lence, struc­tur­al Islam­o­pho­bia, and the War on Ter­ror poli­cies are the dri­vers of indi­vid­ual acts of inter­per­son­al violence.
  • Engage more direct­ly and much fur­ther in advance with com­mu­ni­ty-based orga­ni­za­tions, grass­roots and advo­ca­cy orga­ni­za­tions at the local lev­el in devel­op­ing the frame­work for a hear­ing and iden­ti­fy­ing witnesses.
  • Hold mul­ti­ple pan­els that cen­ter sur­vivors, impact­ed com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers, and com­mu­ni­ty-based organizations.
  • Ensure such hear­ings are not gov­ern­ment plat­forms for Islam­o­phobes, big­ots, and racists to pro­mote their hate­ful agen­das as if they are a legit­i­mate jux­ta­po­si­tion to com­mu­ni­ty-based testimony.
  • Offer more lead time for orga­ni­za­tions to sub­mit state­ments for the record.
  • Cre­ate space to hear direct­ly from one group rather than group­ing Mus­lim, Arab, and South Asian iden­ti­ties togeth­er. Often in such group­ings, impor­tant racial, gen­der, eth­nic, class, caste, and reli­gious iden­ti­ties are erased.
  • Invite grass­roots and com­mu­ni­ty-based groups to speak who hold an abo­li­tion­ist and trans­for­ma­tive jus­tice frame­work to address state, insti­tu­tion­al, and inter­per­son­al forms of vio­lence. We want to ampli­fy the Mus­lim Abo­li­tion­ist Futures grass­roots pol­i­cy agen­da call­ing for abol­ish­ing the War on Ter­ror and build­ing com­mu­ni­ties of care and hope such hear­ings mov­ing for­ward include pro­gres­sive pol­i­cy rec­om­men­da­tions that tie togeth­er the var­i­ous, inter­sect­ing, and com­plex root caus­es of vio­lence rather than priv­i­leg­ing nar­row, reformist pol­i­cy agendas.

As groups on the front­lines of defend­ing our com­mu­ni­ties tar­get­ed by puni­tive gov­ern­ment poli­cies, our orga­ni­za­tions hope there is a rad­i­cal shift in how such hear­ings are car­ried out. Sur­vivors of state vio­lence, hate vio­lence, and big­otry deserve hon­est inquiries and true jus­tice from their elect­ed offi­cials. Con­gress must hold sub­se­quent hear­ings that com­pre­hen­sive­ly and sub­stan­tive­ly con­front and address these issues.

Signed,
Jus­tice For Mus­lims Col­lec­tive
South Asian Amer­i­cans Lead­ing Togeth­er (SAALT)
Mus­lim Abo­li­tion­ist Futures Network

View as a PDF here.

Call to Action: Protect Immigrant Women’s Ability to Work

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​93% of immi­grants who are on H‑4 visas and have work per­mits or employ­ment autho­riza­tion doc­u­ments (EAD) are South Asian women.  Many of them are essen­tial work­ers, pro­vid­ing crit­i­cal ser­vices dur­ing this pan­dem­ic, but they’re not able to work because of delays in pro­cess­ing the renew­al of their work per­mits. Join us in urg­ing Mem­bers of Con­gress to ask Pres­i­dent-Elect Biden to extend the valid­i­ty of all expired H‑4 EAD work per­mits on day one of his administration.

Here are 4 ways you can step up and advocate for our communities' EAD recipients:

  • If you have less than a minute, spread the word to your loved ones and community members via WhatsApp. Click­ing on the link will also allow you to copy and paste the mes­sage to oth­er plat­forms, such as Sig­nal or SMS.
  • If you have three minutes, send our pre-written letter to your Members using democracy.io. This form uses your address to deter­mine your elect­ed offi­cials and their con­tact infor­ma­tion. You can use SAALT’s pre-writ­ten let­ter (which is also avail­able in full under the image at the bot­tom of this page), or edit it and write your own, as well as tag it under “Immi­gra­tion” to ensure it catch­es the eyes of your Representatives.
  • If you have five minutes, tweet at your Members by clicking here and tagging them. You can find the name of your Rep­re­sen­ta­tives here, then find their Twit­ter accounts.
  • If you have more than five minutes, and have experienced difficulties with EAD processing due to USCIS delays, tell us your story here. Hear­ing the human impact of this issue is essen­tial for jour­nal­ists and law­mak­ers to under­stand why it’s so urgent that the incom­ing Biden Admin­is­tra­tion extends work per­mits for all those on H‑4 visas. If you know loved ones or com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers who have sim­i­lar sto­ries, ask them to detail their expe­ri­ences, too.

SAALT, along­side our allies Asian Amer­i­cans Advanc­ing Jus­tice AAJC, NAPAWF, and Rak­sha, are work­ing with Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Bon­nie Wat­son Cole­man to demand that the incom­ing Biden Admin­is­tra­tion pro­tects our com­mu­ni­ties’ EAD recip­i­ents by extend­ing the valid­i­ty peri­od of all expired H‑4 EADs to resolve pro­cess­ing delays. For more infor­ma­tion, or to ask any fur­ther ques­tions, please con­tact the SAALT’s Pol­i­cy Man­ag­er Mah­noor Hus­sain at mahnoor@saalt.org.

Dear Con­gressper­son:

I am a res­i­dent of your dis­trict, and am writ­ing to request that you sign on to Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman’s letter to Pres­i­dent-elect Joe Biden and his Admin­is­tra­tion, demand­ing imme­di­ate relief to the many fam­i­lies adverse­ly impact­ed by sig­nif­i­cant delays in the pro­cess­ing of work autho­riza­tion doc­u­ments (EADs) for peo­ple on H‑4 visas. These delays in EAD renewals are caus­ing laps­es in work autho­riza­tion and job loss­es affect­ing many peo­ple, most­ly women of col­or, in my town. This is why I respect­ful­ly request that you ask Pres­i­dent-elect Joe Biden and his Depart­ment of Home­land Secu­ri­ty to pub­lish a Fed­er­al Reg­is­ter notice on day one of their admin­is­tra­tion to extend the valid­i­ty peri­od of all expired H‑4 EADs.

As you know, in 2015, after sev­er­al years of advo­ca­cy by com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers, includ­ing var­i­ous South Asian women’s orga­ni­za­tions, the Depart­ment of Home­land Secu­ri­ty (DHS) issued a rule allow­ing cer­tain H‑4 depen­dent spous­es of H‑1B visa hold­ers to legal­ly seek employ­ment in the US. Once an H‑1B hold­er is spon­sored for employ­ment-based law­ful per­ma­nent res­i­dent (LPR) sta­tus (oth­er­wise known as a green card) his or her H‑4 visa-hold­ing spouse may apply for work autho­riza­tion. This rule pre­sent­ed an impor­tant step towards rec­ti­fy­ing gen­der dis­par­i­ties in our immi­gra­tion sys­tem as around 95% of H‑4 visa hold­ers who have secured work autho­riza­tion are women. Before the rule was grant­ed, many women on H‑4 visas described depres­sion and iso­la­tion in mov­ing to a new coun­try and not being allowed to work out­side of the home.

These women on H‑4 visas work in a vari­ety of fields includ­ing as essen­tial health­care work­ers, includ­ing in research and devel­op­ment roles at phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal com­pa­nies; these women play tremen­dous­ly impor­tant roles as we con­tin­ue to bat­tle the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, women are los­ing and will con­tin­ue to lose their jobs until this is put right, dis­rupt­ing the lives of their fam­i­lies and the func­tion­ing of employ­ers in our dis­tricts. I respect­ful­ly request that you co-sign Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Bon­nie Wat­son Coleman’s let­ter to Pres­i­dent Elect Joe Biden before Decem­ber 9, 2020 and stand with the H‑4 EADs in our com­mu­ni­ty.

Sin­cere­ly,
Your Con­stituent

South Asian Migrants in Detention

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South Asian Migrants in Deten­tion: A Factsheet

This fact sheet pro­vides an overview of trends in South Asian migra­tion along the U.S. South­ern bor­der, con­di­tions many South Asian migrants face in deten­tion facil­i­ties, spe­cif­ic deten­tion cas­es SAALT has tracked since 2014,  and num­bers of undoc­u­ment­ed Indians.

Community Guide on “Public Charge”

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On Jan­u­ary 27th, 2020 the Supreme Court tem­porar­i­ly lift­ed nation­wide court orders that kept the Trump Admin­is­tra­tion’s pro­posed “pub­lic charge” reg­u­la­tion from tak­ing effect.  This inher­ent­ly dis­crim­i­na­to­ry reg­u­la­tion can now go into effect nation­wide in all states except Illi­nois, where a statewide injunc­tion blocks it.

The “pub­lic charge” reg­u­la­tion expands the def­i­n­i­tion of pub­lic charge and tar­gets any­one who uses applic­a­ble health, nutri­tion, or hous­ing sup­port pro­grams. If the gov­ern­ment deter­mines that some­one is like­ly to become a “pub­lic charge,” that per­son can be refused law­ful per­ma­nent res­i­dence (“green card”),change/extension of non-immi­grant visas, or entry into the U.S.

Details on exact­ly how this reg­u­la­tion will be imple­ment­ed have not yet been revealed.  How­ev­er, those most direct­ly impact­ed by the reg­u­la­tion will be low­er income immi­grants of col­or, includ­ing South Asians:

  • Near­ly 472,000 or 10% of the approx­i­mate­ly five mil­lion South Asians in the U.S. live in poverty.
  •  Among South Asian Amer­i­cans, Pak­ista­nis (15.8%), Nepali (23.9%), Bangladeshis (24.2%), and Bhutanese (33.3%) had the high­est pover­ty rates.
  •  Over 10% of green card recip­i­ents in FY 2016 were from South Asian countries.
  •  Bangladeshi and Nepali com­mu­ni­ties have the low­est medi­an house­hold incomes out of all Asian Amer­i­can groups, earn­ing $49,800 and $43,500 respectively.3
  • Near­ly 61% of non-cit­i­zen Bangladeshi Amer­i­can fam­i­lies receive pub­lic ben­e­fits for at least one of the four fed­er­al pro­grams includ­ing TANF, SSI, SNAP, and Medicaid/CHIP, 48% of non-cit­i­zen Pak­istani fam­i­lies and 11% of non-cit­i­zen Indi­an fam­i­lies also receive pub­lic benefits.

Please fol­low updates via this resource from Pro­tect­ing Immi­grant Families.

11th Annual NCSO Convening & Advocacy Day

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Join us this May for a powerful convergence of NCSO leaders in Washington, D.C.!

The Nation­al Coali­tion of South Asian Orga­ni­za­tions (NCSO) Con­ven­ing will gath­er over 100 rep­re­sen­ta­tives from our NCSO part­ner orga­ni­za­tions on May 9, 2018 in Wash­ing­ton, D.C. Not only will it pro­vide the oppor­tu­ni­ty to build NCSO strength through strat­e­gy shar­ing and prob­lem-solv­ing, but we will work col­lec­tive­ly to expand knowl­edge on poli­cies and leg­is­la­tion tar­get­ing our com­mu­ni­ties. We have also orga­nized space to enhance our skills relat­ed to advo­ca­cy as well as make for region­al and issue based caucuses.

On May 10, 2018 we will head to Capi­tol Hill for Advo­ca­cy Day. NCSO mem­bers will con­nect with gov­ern­ment offi­cials and Mem­bers of Con­gress. You will have mul­ti­ple oppor­tu­ni­ties to engage with pol­i­cy mak­ers, from a morn­ing Con­gres­sion­al Brief­ing to one-on-one meet­ings with Con­gres­sion­al offices in the afternoon.

To learn more about the 2018 NCSO Con­ven­ing and Advo­ca­cy Day, please review our FAQ . Then, register to attend the Annual NCSO Convening and Advocacy Day where you can con­nect in per­son with NCSO mem­bers and be a part of build­ing our col­lec­tive power!

FAQs: NCSO Convening & Advocacy Day 2018

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Are the events acces­si­ble by pub­lic transportation?

The NCSO Con­ven­ing will take place at the George­town Con­fer­ence Cen­ter. Advo­ca­cy Day will take place on Capi­tol Hill, and SAALT will pro­vide a shut­tle for all NCSO Con­ven­ing par­tic­i­pants to attend Advo­ca­cy Day.

What time are check-in and check-out at the George­town Con­fer­ence Center?

Check-in time to the Cen­ter is 4:00pm. Check-out time is 11:00am.

Are the events acces­si­ble for those with phys­i­cal disabilities? 

All event venues are acces­si­ble. Please con­tact almas@saalt.org with spe­cif­ic ques­tions or requests regard­ing phys­i­cal accessibility. 

What is the dress code?

May 9th | NCSO Con­ven­ing: casual/business casual 

May 10th | Advo­ca­cy Day: business/professional attire 

 Will there be inter­preters avail­able for the events?

All events will be offered in Eng­lish. Reg­is­trants may request an inter­preter dur­ing the online reg­is­tra­tion process. For addi­tion­al in-lan­guage requests, please reach out to almas@saalt.org no lat­er than March 15, 2018. 

 How will I get to the events?

The NCSO Con­ven­ing will take place at the George­town Con­fer­ence Cen­ter. Advo­ca­cy Day will take place on Capi­tol Hill, and SAALT will pro­vide a shut­tle for all NCSO Con­ven­ing par­tic­i­pants to attend Advo­ca­cy Day. Out­side of this, par­tic­i­pants are respon­si­ble for their pub­lic trans­porta­tion, taxi, and oth­er trav­el costs while attend­ing events. 

Register here.

Understanding the Muslim Bans

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The Mus­lim Bans are a series of dis­crim­i­na­to­ry exec­u­tive orders and procla­ma­tions that the Trump admin­is­tra­tion has imple­ment­ed. While the first ver­sion, Mus­lim Ban 1.0, was signed and went into effect on 1/27/2017, with­in a day of being signed, thou­sands of indi­vid­u­als across the coun­try rushed to the air­ports in protest, and sig­nif­i­cant por­tions of it were imme­di­ate­ly blocked by the fed­er­al courts. The admin­is­tra­tion has con­tin­ued to issue dif­fer­ent ver­sions of the Mus­lim Ban, which are work­ing their way through the court sys­tem.  Just as with Mus­lim Ban 1.0, the fed­er­al courts have tem­porar­i­ly blocked sig­nif­i­cant por­tions of the sub­se­quent Mus­lim Bans, find­ing them to be bla­tant­ly anti-Mus­lim, uncon­sti­tu­tion­al, and an abuse of the President’s pow­er. The fight to chal­lenge the Mus­lim Bans con­tin­ues.                                               

BEYOND THE BAN: OTHER DISCRIMINATORY POLICIES AGAINST MUSLIMS

Despite intense oppo­si­tion and crit­i­cism from the pub­lic, allied leg­is­la­tors, and the fed­er­al courts, the Trump admin­is­tra­tion has also pushed for­ward oth­er dis­crim­i­na­to­ry poli­cies that share the same goal as the Mus­lim Bans and tar­get Mus­lims and oth­er immi­grants and com­mu­ni­ties of Color.

Extreme Vetting (or the Backdoor Muslim Ban) – On 3/15/2017, the Sec­re­tary of State called for enhanced screen­ing of nation­als of the six coun­tries includ­ed in Mus­lim Ban 2.0. On 5/23/2017, the Office of Man­age­ment and Bud­get approved dis­cre­tionary use of “extreme vet­ting” ques­tions, includ­ing inquiries into social media accounts and exten­sive bio­graph­i­cal and trav­el infor­ma­tion from the last 15 years. Impacts of the pol­i­cy include a dra­mat­ic decline in visa appli­ca­tions; fur­ther delays in visa issuance to nation­als of Mus­lim-major­i­ty coun­tries tar­get­ed by the Mus­lim Bans; and dis­crim­i­na­to­ry prac­tices while issu­ing visas.

Ending Temporary Protection Status (TPS) for Sudan - On 9/19/2017, a few days before Sudan was removed from Mus­lim Ban 3.0, the Trump admin­is­tra­tion announced an end to TPS for Sudan, effec­tive 11/2/2018. Sudanese TPS hold­ers may be forced to return to a coun­try that is still unsta­ble, despite this being the very rea­son for orig­i­nal­ly grant­i­ng TPS to peo­ple from Sudan. These mea­sures raise con­cerns about what is to come next for over 400,000 peo­ple with TPS from dif­fer­ent countries.

Slashing Legal Immigration and Cutting Diversity in our Immigration System – On 2/7/2017, Sen­a­tor Cot­ton (R‑AK) and Sen­a­tor Pur­due (R‑GA) intro­duced a bill that would cut green cards by more than half and end our fam­i­ly-based immi­gra­tion sys­tem. If passed, the Reform­ing Amer­i­can Immi­gra­tion for Strong Employ­ment (RAISE) Act, would cut cur­rent lev­els of legal immi­gra­tion by over 50%, and elim­i­nate the Diver­si­ty Visa Lot­tery Pro­gram, which pro­vides oppor­tu­ni­ties for coun­tries that send few immi­grants – often those with a major­i­ty of Mus­lim and/or Black pop­u­la­tions – to apply for a green card.

Slashing Annual Refugee Admissions – On 9/27/2017, the Trump admin­is­tra­tion dras­ti­cal­ly low­ered the annu­al refugee admis­sion cap from 110,000 to 45,000, the low­est cap since 1980, and Mus­lim Ban 4.0 specif­i­cal­ly tar­gets coun­tries that account for approx­i­mate­ly 80% of all Mus­lim refugees reset­tled in the U.S. in the past two years.

 

*The information provided in this document is just a basic summary and is not legal advice. Every person’s situation is different. For legal advice please contact an attorney. For any information regarding the Muslim Bans please contact Subha Varadarajan, Muslim Ban Legal and Outreach Fellow: A project of Advancing Justice-Asian Law Caucus, CAIR San Francisco Bay Area, and National Immigration Law Center at varadarajan@nilc.org *

 

Ban # Date Issued Targeted Populations[1] Impact on Refugees Duration Key Court Actions Current Status
1.0 1/27/17 All refugees and nation­als from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Soma­lia, Sudan, Syr­ia, and Yemen Halt­ed entire program 90 days for all nation­als (not dual cit­i­zens) of tar­get­ed coun­tries; 120 days for refugees; indef­i­nite for Syr­i­an refugees On 2/9/17, the Ninth Cir­cuit held that the Ban should be blocked Revoked by Mus­lim Ban 2.0 on 3/6/2017
2.0 3/6/17 All refugees and nation­als from Iran, Libya, Soma­lia, Sudan, Syr­ia, and Yemen Halt­ed entire program 90 days for all nation­als of tar­get­ed countries,

120 days for all refugees

 On 6/26/17, the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) allowed part of the ban to go into effect, apply­ing it to those lack­ing a bona fide rela­tion­ship[2] to the U.S. On 9/24/17, the Ban on nation­als from the tar­get­ed coun­tries expired and on 10/24/17, the Ban on refugees expired. SCOTUS dis­missed the cas­es chal­leng­ing the ban as moot.
3.0 9/24/17 Most or all nation­als from Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Soma­lia, Syr­ia, and Yemen and gov­ern­ment offi­cials from Venezuela and their families N/A Indef­i­nite On 10/17/17 the Mary­land dis­trict court in IRAP v. Trump blocked the Ban for all indi­vid­u­als with a bona fide rela­tion­ship to the U.S[3]

 

 Pend­ing review:

On 12/6/17, the Ninth Cir­cuit Court of appeals will hear Hawaii v. Trump, and on 12/8/2017, and the Fourth Cir­cuit Court of Appeals will hear IRAP v. Trump 
4.0 10/24/17 Refugees from Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Mali, North Korea, Soma­lia, Sudan, South Sudan,

Syr­ia, Yemen and any state­less individuals

 Halt­ed pro­gram for tar­get­ed pop­u­la­tions and extreme vet­ting mea­sures for all oth­er refugees Indef­i­nite Chal­lenge filed dis­trict court in Seat­tle (JFS v. Trump) on 11/13/17 Still in effect, pre­lim­i­nary injunc­tion hear­ing set for 12/21/2017

[1]  Waivers may be grant­ed under cir­cum­stances set in each Exec­u­tive Order or Proclamation.

[2]  As of Decem­ber 1, 2017, close famil­ial rela­tion­ship in the U.S or a for­mal doc­u­ment­ed rela­tion­ship with a U.S enti­ty. Famil­ial rela­tion­ship includes par­ents (includ­ing in-laws and step- par­ents), spous­es, fiancées, chil­dren (includ­ing step chil­dren), sib­lings (includ­ing step and half-sib­lings), grand­par­ents, grand­chil­dren, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and cousins. For­mal doc­u­ment­ed rela­tion­ship between stu­dents and uni­ver­si­ties; work­ers and com­pa­nies; and lec­tur­er invit­ed to speak; among oth­er exam­ples are required.

[3] The Hawaii dis­trict court in Hawaii v. Trump ini­tial­ly blocked the Ban for all indi­vid­u­als, BUT on 11/13/17 the Ninth Cir­cuit lim­it­ed this rul­ing to only pro­tect those indi­vid­u­als with a bona fide rela­tion­ship to the U.S.

–

SAALT thanks our part­ners at Nation­al Immi­gra­tion Law Cen­ter (NILC), Coun­cil on Amer­i­can-Islam­ic Rela­tions (CAIR), and Asian Amer­i­cans Advanc­ing Jus­tice (AAJC) for this info­graph­ic.