Meeting with Honorable Jane Holl Lute
On Saturday, September 26, 2009,
the Association for Muslim American Lawyers (AMAL) along with 20 other lawyer
associations and advocates met with the Honorable Jane Holl Lute, Deputy
Secretary of Homeland Security. At the meeting, several civil rights
issues that affect the Muslim and Arab communities were raised. Omar
Mohammedi, the President of AMAL, expressed concern over the citizenship delays
that members of these communities were experiencing due to their religion and
national origin and not based on their moral character. “Everyone has a
dream to become a U.S.
citizen,” said Mr. Mohammedi, “and the Muslim and Arab communities should not
be an exception.”
Mr. Mohammedi also voiced his concern over the ever
increasing No Fly List, which has served to cause extended detentions at
airports along with humiliation and extreme inconvenience. Other
important issues raised at the meeting included immigration and extended
automatic detentions for asylum seekers.
The meeting was productive and Deputy Secretary Lute
promised that the administration would work with all the communities to address
these concerns and reform some of the policies of the Bush administration.
AMAL will continue to work with the Department of
Homeland Security to protect the interests of the Arab and Muslim
communities. We request that those who have experienced problems with
citizenship delay, no-fly lists or any other Department of Homeland Security
related issues to please visit our website and provide us with a brief
description of your concerns. Please complete the form that can be found
on our website at http://www.theamal.org/contactus.aspx. AMAL would
like to approach the Department of Homeland Security with specific examples and
statistics as this dialogue moves forward.
Contact:
Tariq Hussain, Secretary
Sawsan Zaky, Board Member