How Racial Profiling And Other Unnecessary Post-9/11 Anti-Immigrant Measures Have Exacerbated Long-Standing Discrimination Against Latino Citizens And Immigrants

Latinos are uniting with other immigrant communities and people of color in being extremely concerned about unnecessary post-9/11 actions that have led to civil liberties and civil rights violations.1 Although the Latino voting power has presumably increased, infringements of Latinos' and Latinas' civil rights appear to be on the rise. This is because many of the measures taken in the name of fighting terrorism have not been effective at finding terrorists, but have resulted in civil liberties and civil rights violations. Lessening of civil liberties and due process protections disproportionately affects Latino communities, who are less likely to have access to counsel and other legal and economic safeguards that other Americans enjoy.2 Furthermore, Latino communities are about forty percent immigrant, and it is immigrants who are being wrongfully targeted since 9/11. 3 The wrongful targeting of immigrants and people of color who may "look like" immigrants has led to serious infringements of Latino civil rights since 9/11.

This article and the author's November 2003 Senate Judiciary Committee testimony document and analyze some of the most egregious infringements of Latino immigrants' rights in the post-9/11 climate.