Racial and Religious Profiling

Read SAALT's Statement on Racial and Religious Profiling and Endorsement of Rights Working Group's Face the Truth campaign! (September 2009)

Many communities of color experience profiling, a law enforcement tactic

that connects individuals to crimes based on certain characteristics unrelated to criminal conduct.

Since 9/11, incidents of law enforcement and immigration officials racially profiling Arabs, Muslims, Sikhs and South Asians have increased. This can happen by being singled out for extensive searches when boarding a plane or when South Asians experience FBI background check delays with their immigration applications.

South Asians have also faced profiling through immigration policies that have focused on nationals from certain countries. For example, certain male nationals from predominantly Muslim and Arab countries, including Bangladesh and Pakistan, were required to register with the Department of Justice through a program known as “special registration” in the wake of 9/11. As a result of this initiative, nearly 14,000 men were placed in detention and deportation proceedings, primarily for minor immigration violations.

Even local and state law enforcement agencies have engaged in profiling practices that have impacted the South Asian community, such as when Georgia law enforcement, along with the Drug Enforcement Administration, in Operation Meth Merchant, targeted South Asian convenience storeowners accused of selling everyday ingredients that could be used to make the drug methamphetamine.

SAALT works to increase awareness within the community and the government about racial and religious profiling. Along with South Asian community-based organizations and Arab-American and Muslim-American ally organizations, SAALT has called upon members of Congress, law enforcement agencies, and prosecutors to end policies and practices that have the intent or impact of profiling.
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SAALT Resources on Profiling

Factsheet on the End Racial Profiling Act (January 2012)
Letter from Asian American and Pacific Islander Organizations Urging Veto of NDAA (December 2011)
Frequently Asked Questions on NSEERS Modification (April 2011)
Announcement from DHS on NSEERS Modification - Bangla; Urdu (April 2011)
Joint Organizational Letter Expressing Concerns Regarding Congressman Peter King's House Hearing on Radicalization and the Muslim Community (2011)
Discrimination Undeterred: Xenophobic Rhetoric, Profiling, and Discrimination Affecting South Asians, Muslim, and Sikh Communities in the United States - Article in Satyam: The Chicago-Kent College of Law's Journal on South Asia and the Law
SAALT Statement on the Introduction of End Racial Profiling Act (HR 5748) (2010)
SAALT Testimony to House Subcommittee on Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties on Profiling and the South Asian community (2010)
SAALT Alert Regarding the Rescission of 14-Country Screening Policy (2010)
SAALT Issue Briefs on the Impact of Racial and Religious Profiling on the South Asian Community: Surveillance, Travel and Immigration (2010)
What You Need to Know About New Airline Screening Standards (2010)
Letter to the Department of Homeland Security About New TSA Screening Standards (2010)
South Asian Organizations Express Concerns About New Security Screening Standards (2010)
Profiling and Its Impact on the South Asian Community (2009)
Civil Rights Transition Paper (2009)
The Impact of Operation Meth Merchant on South Asians (October 2006 Update)
The Continuing Impact of the Special Registration Program (December 2005)
“SAALT’s Statement of Concern Regarding Special Registration” (February 2007)
“Operation Meth Merchant: A Civil Rights Perspective” (March 2006) Oped-ed in India Abroad by SAALT’s Executive Director, Deepa Iyer, and NAACP Legal Defense Fund Staff Attorney, Vanita Gupta

Other Resources on Profiling

Links to Ally Organizations for Further Information


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