Program Areas

• 9.11 Disaster Response
• Affirmative Action
• Anti-Asian Bias
• Anti-Trafficking Initiative
• Economic Justice
• Educational Equity
• Equal Access to Services
• Immigrants' Rights
• Leadership Development
• Voting Rights

Since September 11, 2001, AALDEF has challenged the government's racial, ethnic and religious profiling of Muslims and other select groups of noncitizens in the name of national security. In response to the Department of Homeland Security's National Security Entry-Exit Registration Program (or "Special Registration"), AALDEF met an overwhelming need for legal assistance and information among immigrant communities targeted by each wave of INS Special Registration Program deadlines. We provided direct legal representation and consultations to more than 1,000 affected individuals.

Between January and April 2003, AALDEF held free legal clinics each week in partnership with New York City community-based organizations, developed informational flyers and legal alerts for the Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Korean and Indonesian communities, and arranged for their distribution through national and local Asian-language newspapers. We launched a major community education campaign to educate immigrants about their legal rights through "Know Your Rights" trainings, free legal advice clinics, media outreach, and the distribution of over 15,000 legal rights fact sheets, pamphlets and other materials. Our education and outreach activities have reached tens of thousands of South Asians, Arabs and Muslims, resulting in a flood of inquiries from the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area and from over 40 states across the country.

In November 2003, AALDEF released a report, "Special Registration: Discrimination and Xenophobia as Government Policy," which details our survey findings of 219 individuals who were affected by the Special Registration Program. Our report confirmed that the Special Registration policy targeted Muslims and individuals of Asian, Middle Eastern, and North African descent, destroying families and driving out hard-working noncitizens who were discriminatorily targeted. The report received national attention in the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and several local and ethnic newspapers, and also was covered by radio and television programs airing in New York, Los Angeles, and Washington D.C.

At the beginning of December 2003, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the "end" of the Special Registration Program. This misleading announcement generated much confusion, since the only significant changes to the program were the suspension of annual re-registration requirements and the 30/40-day follow-up interviews applicable to port-of-entry registrants.

In coalition with a network of national immigrant rights groups, including the National Immigration Law Center, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the American Immigration Law Foundation, AALDEF is investigating the government's failure to provide information about departure requirements to special registrants who complied with the program in 2002 and 2003. AALDEF continues to clarify these changes to several special registrants who could face denial of admission to the U.S., denial of immigration benefits, possible criminal prosecution, or removal proceedings if they fail to comply with other program requirements that remain in effect.