Zuhair Mahmoud had lived in the U.S. for a quarter of a decade, during which the blind native Jordanian and a Muslim volunteered his time to assist causes relating to awareness and support for those suffering from disabilities. Having gone through the proper immigrations channels, Mahmoud was a seemingly perfect candidate for U.S. citizenship — yet for five years, his application was “delayed.”
The lawful waiting time for citizenship applications is six months, which takes into consideration moral character, knowledge of the United States and its history and English comprehension. Only applicants who have been in the country for a significant number of time, depending on circumstance, are allowed to apply. To the best of Mahmoud’s knowledge, he fit all of that criteria.
It wasn’t until after a federal lawsuit ruling in his favor that the man was able to obtain citizenship.
Mahmoud’s is the story of many Muslim immigrants who have gone through the immigration process, legally adhering to the bureaucracy and cost of the system, only to have their immigration status put aside for their faith and birthplace.
Tarek Hamid’s situation wasn’t much different. For eleven years, his citizenship status was on hold — he, too, had to take his case to federal district court before finally being able to take the oath.
“I always played by the rules,” Hamdi told the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). “I paid taxes, contributed to society and raised a beautiful family. The U.S. government treated me differently in the citizenship process because I am a Muslim man. It was incredibly frustrating and truly demoralizing. No person of faith, no honest man should have to face the discrimination I have, especially when striving to take an oath of allegiance to the United States.”
A new report released by the ACLU details the reason why these men and many other immigrants found themselves in the tangled crosshairs of the immigration system.
According to the report, “Muslims Need Not Apply,” the government has been carrying out a previously secret operation that has put restrictions on and denied immigration rights to thousands of Muslim individuals based on their religion and community of origin.
In addition to their treatment, those in the immigration process had been kept in the dark regarding the reasons for delays in their applications. In the meantime, those who were blacklisted were subject to limitations, including relating to overseas travel.
“They are treated as suspicious without ever being told why,” the ACLU states in a video accompanying the report.
Covert operation labels broad range of immigrants as terrorists
The Controlled Application Review and Resolution Program (CAARP) was created, according to Homeland Security, in 2008 as a way to ensure immigrants applying for residency and citizenship in the U.S. did not pose a significant threat to national security.
It was seen as a replacement of sorts to the FBI Name Check program, implemented in 2002 to provide additional FBI file screening for all immigrant applicants.
Just recently, however, the ACLU discovered the review was using a broad brush to identify what — and who — constitutes as a potential threat.
“Unlike the pre-existing Name Check policy, which led only to lengthy delays, CAARP prevents the fair adjudication of immigration benefit applications and results in pretextual, unjustified denials of those benefits that disproportionately impact people from the AMEMSA (Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, South Asian) communities,” the report states.
Under the United States Immigration and Services program, a citizenship application cannot technically be delayed — it has to be ruled on within 6 months of the filing date. If this isn’t adhered to, applicants can take their case to federal court, which is what so many did.
The ACLU is referring to CARRP as a covert operation that targeted individuals originated from Middle Eastern, Arab, South Asian and Muslim communities. Those who had been blacklisted were never told of their status, or the real reason behind their unsuccessful immigration bids.
“The CARRP program directs agency officers to delay and ultimately deny the immigration benefits applications to applicants it has blacklisted, all without even telling these individuals that they were labeled threats to our nation, let alone giving them an opportunity to respond to the allegations,” the report states.
The only reason the program was uncovered, according to the report, was due to the number of citizenship applicants who had taken lawful action to determine why their applications weren’t being processed.
The public is now being informed of CARRP, but that doesn’t mean it’s a thing of the past. The ACLU is now urging lawyers who represent immigrants who could be red flagged, based on the information in their report, to take note.
An official Immigration Services CAARP summary obtained by the ACLU includes guidelines for identifying a national security concern: “… an individual or organization (that) has been determined to have an articulable link to prior, current, or planned involvement in, or association with, an activity, individual or organization, described in the security and terrorism sections of the Immigration and Nationality Act.”
As the ACLU points out, it does not define what “articulable link” or “association” with means. This is where the ACLU connected the program with the Terrorism Watch List, a secret government list that includes more than 875,000 individuals.
Why so many? According to the ACLU, there are no concrete requirements to be named on the Terrorism Watch List — no evidence is required that those named pose a real threat to the nation. Instead, those “suspected” of being a potential threat can and will be included.
According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office 2007 report, only one percent of those nominated for the list are kept off it. The most famous cases of peaceful individuals on the Terrorist Watch List include Nelson Mandela, Sen. Edward Kennedy and Yusuf Islam, formerly known as musician Cat Stevens.
‘Terrorism Watch List’
Under CARRP, any individual deemed “suspicious,’ including those on the nation’s Terrorism Watch List, were blacklisted.
By the sounds of it, the Terrorism Watch List is reserved for those tied to terrorist organizations or groups — yet according to the ACLU, even the act of donating to a Muslim-American charity could land an individual — citizen or otherwise — on the top secret list.
“The Terrorist Watch List is a faulty, over-inclusive list containing hundreds of thousands of names of individuals, including U.S. residents, who are never told they are on the Watch List or given a meaningful opportunity to dispute their inclusion on it,” the report states.
Any individual — Muslim or otherwise — who has visited a mosque under surveillance is included in the government’s watch list. For Muslims living in the U.S. under residency visas, that’s a given. Considering the number of mosque spying operations carried out in the U.S. in the years following 9/11, that likely isn’t a short list.
The New York Police Department (NYPD) become notorious for its covert operations, which it carried out with the CIA, in Muslim communities — spying on those attending local mosques was all part of the process.
According to the Associated Press, the NYPD’s secret operations included six years of spying on Muslim communities, with department’s operations did not reveal one lead. That was acknowledged by the NYPD in 2012 in federal court testimony.
Despite the acknowledgement that those who fell victim to NYPD mosque surveillance were not found to have any ties to terrorism, their names could remain on the nation’s list that allegedly includes those with a propensity for terrorism.