This footage is from the protest in front of the INS building that took place from noon to 1pm at 444 Washington Street in San Francisco on June 13, 2003.
Speaker: Ben Allen
Organization: Blue Triangle Network
Ben Allen in San Francisco (Small – 36 MB)
Audio – Ben Allen in San Francisco (MP3 – 11 MB)

Ben Allen, Blue Triangle Network

(Excerpt) Many of those who came to register were detained under brutal conditions. Now, with this announcement by the government of its intention to deport 13,000 of those who voluntarily registered, a grave new escalation is occurring. These measures and actions have already caused deep fear and anxiety, wrecked lives, broken up families and devastated communities.
The government says it is doing this for our safety and well being. This has a familiar ring.
Just as the government used fraudulent documents and a web of lies to create a pretext for war in Iraq, it is using lies, distortion, racial stereotypes and fictitious alerts to manufacture a climate of danger to justify its repression at home. Under the cover of this climate of fear, the government has rigged up a parallel legal system that allows it to deny its victims even the most basic human rights.
Haven’t we seen this before? The lie of an imminent internal threat was used to justify the roundup of Japanese-Americans during WWII, and a similar lie was used to justify the roundups, expulsions, detentions, and eventually the outright murder of communists, jews, trade unionists, catholics, and others in Germany during that era…
So what should we do about this?
What we should not do — and what Dick Cheney would have us do — which is to accept this as the new normalcy…
We have to create a climate and culture of resistance, such that attacks on these communities, or any communities, is not tolerated.

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This footage is from the protest in front of the INS building that took place from noon to 1pm at 444 Washington Street in San Francisco on June 13, 2003.
Speaker: Matthew Van Saun
Organization: Amnesty International
Matthew Van Saun in San Francisco (Small – 16 MB)
Audio – Matthew Van Saun in San Francisco (MP3 – 5 MB)

Matthew Van Saun, Amnesty International

(Excerpt) Amnesty International USA does not take issue with the government enforcing immigration laws if immigrants are found to have violated such laws. We are concerned that the health and safety of some of these foreign nationals may be at risk if they are deported back to some countries where they fear persecution…
A report by the Justice Department was released on June 3. It was deeply critical of the government’s roundup of immigrants after September 11, 2001. Senior Officials were found to have repeatedly ignored calls from immigration officials to quickly distinguish between the innocent and the guilty. There was evidence of abuse and harsh treatment of the detainees by officials. Moreover, many of these immigrants are now facing deportation to countries where they may face persecution.
Of the persons designated for deportation through the Special Registration program, many may have well-founded fears of persecution, but may have missed the one year deadline to file an asylum claim. It’s an arbitrary deadline to which Amnesty is opposed.
According to U.S. and International Law, anyone claiming a fear of persecution upon return to his or her home country has a right to full and fair consideration of those claims. In closing, Amnesty International U.S.A. asks the U.S. Government to abide by U.S. and International Law and to guarantee the human rights of those facing deportation by ensuring that anyone claiming a fear of persecution, torture, or other ill treatment be given a full and fair hearing on their claims. Thank you.

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This footage is from the protest in front of the INS building that took place from noon to 1pm at 444 Washington Street in San Francisco on June 13, 2003.
Speaker: Reverend John Oda
Organization: Pine United Methodist Church
Reverend John Oda in San Francisco (Small – 18 MB)
Audio – Reverend John Oda in San Francisco (MP3 – 6 MB)

Reverend John Oda, Pine United Methodist Church

(Excerpt) What is happening with the deportation fo 13,000 individuals is wrong. It’s unjust. It’s immoral.
I’m here as an American Citizen to stand by my brothers and sisters and say that this is not right. My parents, my aunts and uncles and my grandparents were all interned during World War II. During WW II, they voluntarily cooperated with the United States government thinking that they would get fair treatment. They were thrown into concentration camps in the middle of the desert.
My mother, who was about 4 years old, tells stories of being completely ostracized by her friends, by her neighbors, by the community. Just because they were of Japanese-American heritage. Just because Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor.
So what the Bush Administration is doing is causing mass paranoia in the country. It is causing communities to be divided. It is causing all of us to look around and wonder whether that person or this person is our friend of our foe. I’m here as a person of faith to say “that’s not the way that we elimintae terrorism. How we eliminate terrorism is through acceptance and through love. It’s through love. It’s through hope…
As a person in the Japanese-American community I know that my parents continue to feel the sting of that injustice, how they were ostracized. And I’m hoping that all of you will go out and educate your communities — educate your neighbors about this immoral deportation. And to let everyone know that they’re not alone in their protest of this immoral government.

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This footage is from the protest in front of the INS building that took place from noon to 1pm at 444 Washington Street in San Francisco on June 13, 2003.
Speaker: Banafsheh Akhlaghi, Immigration Attorney
Banafsheh Akhlaghi in San Francisco (Small – 8 MB)
Audio – Banafsheh Akhlaghi Immigration Attorney in San Francisco (MP3 – 3 MB)

Banafsheh Akhlaghi, Immigration Attorney

(Excerpt) These aren’t just stories. 13,000 individuals. One of them will be meeting me here today. These are real live individuals with real live dramas that none of us could even encounter on a daily basis. The rest of them sit in deportation. They wake up every morning wondering if today will be their last day — if they’ll be picked up today or not…
These are stories that I see every day and that the bulk of us here see every day. Please expose it, and expose it as much as you possibly can. Please speak out for them as we are trying to speak out for them. Thank you very much for being here.

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This footage is from the protest in front of the INS building that took place from noon to 1pm at 444 Washington Street in San Francisco on June 13, 2003.
Speaker: Cecilia Chang
Organization: Justice For New Americans
Cecilia Chang in San Francisco (Small – 10 MB)
Audio – Cecilia Chang in San Francisco (MP3 – 3 MB)

Cecilia Chang, Justice For New Americans

(Excerpt) Today I’m speaking on behalf of all new Americans. “New Americans” is anybody in this country who are looked at as foreigners even though they are U.S. Citizens…to ask the U.S. government to treat them with justice…I am here to represent many of these new immigrants.
This country. This country is made up of Americans. What’s going here? We are forgetting the fact that America is made up of immigrants and we are now deporting the law abiding immigrants and asking them to go home.

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This footage is from the protest in front of the INS building that took place from noon to 1pm at 444 Washington Street in San Francisco on June 13, 2003.
Speaker: Riva Enteen, Program Director
Organization: National Lawyers Guild
NLG’s Post 911 “Know Your Rights” Website
Riva Enteen in San Francisco (Small – 11 MB)
Audio – Riva Enteen in San Francisco (MP3 – 3 MB)

Riva Enteen, Program Director, National Lawyers Guild

(Excerpt) I remember when the U.S. Supreme Court acknowledged the Japanese Internment as one of the most shameful moments in history…
But today, as we stand here, were looking at people who voluntarily went in to special register, and now 13,000 of them are facing deportation…
Patriot II says even U.S. born citizens can be deported. We shall not let this entire constitutional framework of this country be torn up before our eyes!
Now the NLG has a hotline for people contacted by the FBI or the INS as a result of 911, and it’s important that everyone knows that nobody has to talk to any governement agent, and they should call the guild for an attorney. Now we had some people, Iraqis, when they were questioned, they were contacted six times in one day by the FBI. And one man, six times in one day, said “No, I can’t talk to you until I talk to my attorney.” Don’t to talk to any government agent until you talk to an attorney.

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This footage is from the protest in front of the INS building that took place from noon to 1pm at 444 Washington Street in San Francisco on June 13, 2003.
Speaker: Jayashri Srikantiah, Staff Attorney
Organization: American Civil Liberties Union
Jayashri Srikantiah in San Francisco (Small – 11 MB)
Audio – Jayashri Srikantiah in San Francisco (MP3 – 4 MB)

Jayashri Srikantiah, Staff Attorney, ACLU

(Excerpt) Right after September 11th, President Bush and Congress expressed solidarity with Arab, Muslim and South Asian communities and warned against singling out members of those communities for the actions of terrorists. Unfortunately, the government’s actions stand in sharp contrast to its words.
The latest round of deportations announced by the government is only the most recent example of the Federal Government’s practice of ethnic skapegoating and stereotyping. What the governement is doing is targeting particular nationalities for aggressive enforcement of immigration law. What the government is doing is targeting “immigrants” instead of targeting “terrorists.”
The latest round of deportation follows other discriminatory policies including targeting of South Asian, Muslim and Arab communities for questioning, lengthy and secret detentions, secret deportations and other activities…
For immigrant communities, the promise of “due process of law” has been eroded. Even the government’s own reports recognize the government’s own discriminatory and shameful detention and deportation policies…
The government must stop targeting innocent people based on their ethnicity and religion. The government must stop disrupting the lives of thousands of innocent immigrant families. The government must stop equating “immigrants” with “terrorists.”

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