PREVENTION AND CONFLICT

Under the Radar: Muslims Deported, Detained, and Denied on Unsubstantiated Terrorism Allegations

Under the Radar traces the discriminatory deployment of immigration and law enforcement practices against Muslim communities in the United States through the lens of national security and counterterrorism policy, situating it in the broader framework of international human rights law and evaluating five under-documented patterns of government conduct that exploit lower evidentiary standards and due process gaps within the immigration system. This Briefing Paper argues that the targeting of Muslim immigrants on the basis of religious and ethnic stereotypes rather than evidence of wrongdoing carries profound human rights significance through the compounding dynamics of unsubstantiated allegations, coercive detention, overbroad statutory application, and institutional opacity, generating systematic violations of due process, liberty, religious freedom, and privacy that demand an immediate end to discriminatory practices and meaningful government accountability.

Through the targeted use of a wide set of immigration and law enforcement policies and actions, the U.S. government has cast Muslims as dangerous threats to national security, leaving Muslim communities across the United States vulnerable to discrimination and discriminatory profiling. This Briefing Paper by the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice and the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) documents the U.S. government’s deployment of lower evidentiary standards and lack of due process guarantees in the immigration system against Muslims to further marginalize this targeted group in the name of national security and counterterrorism.

A number of particular immigration programs and practices—such as the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) name-check system in the naturalization process, and racial profiling at U.S. borders have received critical attention for their discriminatory impacts on Muslim communities. This Briefing Paper draws on interviews with immigration and criminal defense attorneys and community-based groups, court documents, and media accounts to identify five key under-documented patterns of government practices that appear to be targeting Muslim communities through the immigration system:

1. The U.S. government’s use of unsubstantiated terrorism-related allegations without bringing official charges in cases involving ordinary immigration violations. This practice has the effect of prejudicing the immigration judge or placing the Muslim immigrant in a precarious situation where he is unable to defend himself against the allegations. As a result, he is often pressured to self- deport.
2. The U.S. government’s practice of subjecting Muslim immigrants to detention ostensibly for posing national security threats in cases involving minor violations that ordinarily do not warrant detention. Detention and threat of immigration detention are also used to coerce Muslims to drop challenges to immigration charges or accept plea deals in criminal cases.
3. The U.S. government’s use of flimsy immigration charges. For example, the government often uses false statement charges for failure to disclose tenuous ties to Muslim charitable organizations in such a way that seems to target Muslim immigrants for religious and political activities and affiliations.
4. The U.S. government’s unfair application of overbroad statutory language of the terrorism bar provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) to remove, bar, and detain Muslims.
5. The undue influence of the FBI on U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activities. The FBI is known to exploit the vulnerability of Muslim non-citizens as a way to facilitate its preventative counterterrorism policing objectives in prejudicial ways.

Although the Department of Homeland Security’s April 27, 2011 announced  the indefinite suspension of the NSEERS program, this  documentation suggests the government continued to use subtler—though no less abusive—practices of detention, deportation, and denial of immigration benefits.

PREVENTION AND CONFLICT

Struggling to Survive: Sexual Exploitation of Displaced Women and Girls in Port au Prince, Haiti

Struggling to Survive traces the widespread practice of sexual exploitation and survival sex among women and girls in post-earthquake Haiti’s displacement camps through a joint fact-finding investigation, situating it in the broader framework of international human rights obligations and evaluating the structural breakdown of family, community, and economic safety nets that has driven this new survival strategy amid persistent impunity for gender-based violence. This report argues that the prevalence of sexual exploitation carries profound human rights significance through the compounding dynamics of heightened vulnerability, inadequate humanitarian response, and entrenched institutional neglect, generating a need for holistic recommendations spanning immediate humanitarian relief, long-term economic and social support, integrated service coordination, and accountability measures to end impunity for perpetrators while ensuring that survivors are never themselves punished.

Between 2010 and 2012, numerous reports have examined gender-based violence (GBV) in post-earthquake Haiti. These reports have focused on rape and other sexual violence perpetrated against women and girls living in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps in Port au Prince. In December 2010, recognizing that sexual violence against displaced women and girls is a serious problem in Haiti, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), issued a groundbreaking decision requesting that the Government of Haiti take urgent measures to address sexual violence. These measures included increased security patrols in the camps, improved lighting, adequate medical care, legal accountability, as well as participation of grassroots women’s groups in developing anti-violence policies and practices. United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteurs and the Independent Expert on Haiti have also drawn attention to the grave issues of violence against women and impunity for such acts in Haiti.

The Haitian Ministry for Women’s Affairs and Women’s Rights (Women’s Ministry) is in the process of finalizing draft legislation addressing violence against women. Notwithstanding this heightened awareness and attention, violence against women and girls continues unabated. A social science researcher has recently found a staggering twenty-two percent of displaced persons and two percent of general community members have been victims of sexual assault. The Haitian grassroots women’s organization KOFAVIV, through its network of community outreach workers and free sexual violence hotline, documented 269 incidents of rape in and around Port au Prince from March to October 2011 alone. Around 520,000 Haitians still live in IDP camps in conditions without access to adequate food, health services, security or economic opportunity, placing them at risk for increased violence. As the international presence diminishes, the situation in displacement camps continues to become more precarious.

Post-earthquake conditions have made young women and girls particularly vulnerable to sexual exploitation. Through its work combating rape and other sexual violence, KOFAVIV has identified sexual exploitation as a priority issue. “Sexual Exploitation” is defined in this Report as the abuse of differential power for sexual purposes, including, but not limited to, profiting monetarily, socially or politically from the sexual exploitation of another, thus abrogating the victim’s human right to dignity, equality, autonomy, and physical and mental well-being. “Survival sex” is defined here as the exchange of sex in circumstances where those exchanging sex for survival lack other options.

KOFAVIV requested the assistance of MADRE, the International Women’s Human Rights Clinic of CUNY School of Law, the Global Justice Clinic at NYU Law, and the UC Hastings Center for Gender & Refugee Studies, to investigate the problem of sexual exploitation, identify its causes and consequences, conduct a legal and critical analysis, and provide concrete recommendations to the Haitian government and other actors to develop more effective responses in line with international obligations.

While there are no reliable statistics on the prevalence of survival sex in IDP camps, or post- earthquake Haiti more generally, sexual exploitation has been identified as an issue in nearly every humanitarian or human rights report on women’s rights since the earthquake. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) conducted a study into the issue, finding that women in focus groups commonly reported exchanging sexual acts in return for food and other survival needs, including aid distribution coupons, access to direct aid distributions, cash for work programs, money, or even a single meal. On top of the hardships suffered by all IDP camp residents, Human Rights Watch (HRW) found that women and girls are additionally harmed by sexual violence, the need to engage in survival sex, and a lack of access to family planning, prenatal and obstetric care. Women and girls who engage in survival sex are especially at risk of unintended pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases and other related health problems. They are often isolated from their social networks and communities, increasing the risk of violence and despair. 

A study by the Humanitarian Accountability Partnership (HAP) mirrored these findings, confirming that single mothers are the most vulnerable population to sexual exploitation, and therefore more likely to engage in survival sex. Additionally, preliminary survey results from a study conducted by the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice suggest that camp residents believe that trading sex for basic needs has become a more common survival strategy for women and girls in the camps since the earthquake. Thus, for many women, survival sex appears to be a new coping mechanism that is driven by the breakdown of family and community structures, the loss of associated protection and safety nets, and poor economic opportunity.

In November and December 2011, teams of researchers from MADRE, the International Women’s Human Rights Clinic at CUNY School of Law, Global Justice Clinic at NYU Law and the UC Hastings Center for Gender & Refugee Studies conducted a fact-finding investigation in Haiti in an effort to respond to KOFAVIV’s request for a critical analysis of the current response to sexual exploitation in Haiti and to build on existing research into the issue, such as that of the UNHCR and HRW. 

The investigation focused on elucidating the factors that make women and girls particularly vulnerable to exploitation, examining the effects of this exploitation, and evaluating the programs developed by the Haitian government and the international community to respond to it. During the fact-finding investigation, team members interviewed numerous young women who exchanged sex for food, education or other necessities for themselves and their families, as well as numerous residents of camps knowledgeable about the practice. The team also interviewed a wide range of governmental and non-governmental representatives as well as service providers and outreach workers from grassroots organizations working in displacement camps. The study suggests that sexual exploitation is widespread. In addition, the study found that little is being done to address the issue, due in large part to a lack of understanding and a history of impunity for violence against women in Haiti. 

The findings of this Report are consistent with numerous other reports examining sexual exploitation and exchange in post-earthquake Haiti. Sexual exploitation is not unfamiliar in a country that has faced overlapping emergencies for decades. Yet the evidence suggests that sexual exploitation increases dramatically when levels of vulnerability are heightened and access to food and basic services needed for survival are limited.

The findings of this report suggest that much remains to be done in the way of effectively preventing, combating and responding to sexual exploitation, and other forms of violence against women in post-earthquake Haiti. 

As such, the report concludes by offering a series of recommendations designed to holistically address this issue. These recommendations cover four areas of concern: 

1. meeting immediate needs of those people most vulnerable to sexual exploitation, including ensuring that poor and displaced Haitians are provided with basic necessities of life such as food, comprehensive medical and health care and temporary shelter; and improving security measures and police response to sexual exploitation and other forms of gender-based violence; 
2. meeting long-term needs, including the provision of free education, income generating opportunities, housing and adequate health care; and the implementation of effective measures to promote and protect the right to be free from sexual violence;
3. integrating services, including training medical staff, police, outreach workers and other first responders on how to identify and respond to youth vulnerable to sexual exploitation; coordinating with civil society, and encouraging the full participation and leadership of women and systematizing data collection documenting the prevalence of all forms of violence against women in displacement camps; 
4. and ending impunity and ensuring accountability, including working to finalize, pass and implement the Draft Law on Violence Against Women; ensuring that reported cases of rape, and abuses of power by public sector and other humanitarian workers are held responsible, and, conversely, that women and girls engaging in survival sex are not punished.