IndiaPost.com - DHS lays down strong policy against racial profiling

India Post News Service

NEW YORK: When the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education fund (SALDEF) recently bestowed its Public Service Award to Daniel W. Sutherland, Officer for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at the US Department of Homeland Security, it was recognition of the department's concerted efforts to ensure the civil rights of ethnic communities are not compromised in the name of national security. The SALDEF Public Service Award recognizes the contributions and efforts made by a government appointee in performing outstanding public service beyond the scope of their normal job duties.

And in his capacity as Officer of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties for the Department of Homeland Security Sutherland, who has been a civil rights attorney throughout his legal career, has gone the extra mile to particularly ensure the rights of Sikh Americans who have been suffering systemic profiling and hate crime in this country since 9/11.

Talking to India Post in an exclusive interview regarding the working of the OCRCL, Sutherland said, "The office for civil liberties is responsible to create security policies that also respect the constitutional rights and federal civil right laws of people of this country.

So we work on a wide variety of issues relating to people who travel to this country and work on issues dealing with immigration, detention issues, also emergency response and preparedness." Following a series of complaints from Sikh Americans regarding humiliating situations at airports where they would be subjected to searches of their turbans, the OCRCL has recently worked with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to come up with new screening policies for anyone wearing a headgear.

"The news screening policies respect people's religious backgrounds. We worked with the TSA to particularly to clarify their policies on screening Sikh travelers," Sutherland said. On the issue of racial profiling among minority communities - especially Arab American and mistakenly sometimes, Sikh Americans, Sutherland said the effort of his department has been to ensure that racial profiling does not become the "unwritten policy" of the US Government.

"We've taken a very strong written policy against racial and ethnic profiling that lays down clearly the leadership for the Department's commitment that its not permissible to suspect people simply based on their religious or ethnic background, but that we should look for more specific indicators rather than guessing someone's race and religion," he said.

Sutherland had recently participated as a panelist on an anti-terrorism seminar in Trenton, New Jersey where state officials were trying to find ways of integrating new immigrants into the mainstream. "That conference was an interesting one," he said.

"The consensus among the state and local officials was that the diverse religious and ethnic minorities in America are a real strength for us and that we shouldn't be suspicious of them. It was felt that we should help them in different ways, especially when they first come into the country - on how can they find jobs, how can they get their social services that they need and how can they take English language lessons and so on. We want to integrate them, look at them as an asset and not as someone we need to be worried about or suspicious about."

With their numbers growing substantially in recent years, Indian Americans in New Jersey have been sporadically facing bias attacks and more seriously, friction with the law enforcement officers.

To ensure that their rights are not compromised in such situations, Sutherland said that it is important for people to know that there is an office such as his that they can turn to for redress. "It's really important for people to just know that the Department of Homeland Security has a deep commitment to these communities and has an office to deal with these issues," he said.

"One thing is for people to know that there is an Office of Civil Liberties and Civil Rights, and that we first of all want people's opinion and ideas on how to secure the country, and that secondly, if there is a problem, we want to resolve it."

On sensitizing local law enforcement agencies to ethnic communities, Sutherland said, "We've also done quite a bit of training for officers," Sutherland informed. "We held tutorials for officers to teach them policy.

We are looking at not only a strong written policy but also strong training about policy. There will be also the ability to investigate complaints of racial or ethnic profiling." The paranoia in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 having passed, the country is more focused now on security.

"There are some good developments with security as well as our engagement with communities," Sutherland said. For ethnic communities - whether non-immigrant workers or permanent residents and citizens, there are a few key issues they need to be mindful of, Sutherland pointed out. "The big issue is people need to be aware of developments with respect to immigration and enforcement or immigration laws.

That is a big priority on Capitol Hill and in our Department," he explained. "People also need to be aware of air travel and if they have any problems with misidentification, they have to call TRIP (Traveler Redress Inquiry Program) -- it's a mechanism for people to clear any misidentification or profiling issues."

The forthcoming Presidential elections will have no bearing on the working of the department, Sutherland said. "Our department is apolitical, we are responsible for security and not politics."