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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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 *
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.
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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.
Before I started law school, I had definitely heard the term “due process.” I have to confess, though, I wasn’t really sure what it meant. All I knew is that it sounded good, seemed to be a core American value, and was rooted in fairness. It was something that this country prided itself on as a hallmark principle that came down from our Founding Fathers.
When we talk about immigration, there is often talk about due process violations affecting the lives of immigrants, but what does that really mean? Of course, we could always turn to our trusted friend, the Webster’s Dictionary for some guidance: “legal proceedings that are carried out following established rules and laws that result in unfair or arbitrary treatment of individuals.” (The legal eagles among us can rely upon the definitive Black’s Law Dictionary for some fancier and technical language, too.) But these lofty and abstract definitions did not hold much traction for me. It wasn’t until I encountered the real life experiences of immigrants whose due process rights were violated that I understood why this value is so dear and needs to be protected in our country’s immigration system.
Below are just a few examples spotlighting South Asians seeking asylum that made clear to what due process (or the lack thereof) truly means.
Due process means access to legal representation and legal information: Monisha, originally from Pakistan, was an honors graduate from UC Berkeley who came from Mumbai to Texas to seek asylum with her parents and brother when she was ten years old. While in India, her father was very involved in the local Muslim community — as a result of his activities, thier family became the target of Hindu fundamentalist groups. They were denied asylum because their attorneys failed to meet necessary filing deadlines. Immigration authorites later arrested her parents and brother and placed them in deportation proceedings. Navigation the complex world of immigration law is often worse for those who do not have lawyers and have to represent themselves because immigrants facing deportation are not guaranteed an attorney. Does it seem fair that accurate legal information and competent representation is often unattainable particularly when the immigration system is so complicated?
Due process means ensuring that immigrants are not criminalized and placed in detention: Harpal, a Sikh man, chose to be deported back to India where he had been tortured, rather than languish in limbo in immigration detention. When he arrived in the U.S., he settled in the Bay Area, began working as a truck driver, and applied for asylum. He was later arrested by U.S. government and immigration officials. After being detained for more than eight years in California, much of it in solitary confinement, and tired of waiting for Convention Against Torture claim to be resolved in the courts, he decided to return to a country where officials had previously mistreated him severely. Does it seem fair to lock up individuals for years who have committed no crime and are waiting excessive period of time for their immigration cases to be resolved?
Due process means guaranteeing fairness of immigration court proceedings and case review on appeal: A Sri Lankan woman fleeing persecution in Sri Lanka was denied asylum by an immigration judge who did not believe her case simply because she was “looking up at the ceiling” during testimony. The judge ignored detailed evidence of her fear of return and based denial on this minor point about her demeanor. Even worse, the appellate body, the Board of Immigration Appeals, did not disagree with the judge’s ruling. It was not until a federal court reviewed her case that the initial judge was ordered to consider her case more thoroughly. Does it seem fair that the safety and lives of immigrants depend upon often arbitrary and unfair decisions that can occur in Immigration Courts and are given limited review?
These are just a few stories that you find replicating themselves within the South Asian community that convey in real terms what the lack of due process looks like. As immigration reform moves forward, it is crucial that due process and fundamental fairness be restored to policies and procedures that affect the lives of so many immigrants in this country.
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.
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.
