Dear friends and allies, this is from DRUM – Desis Rising Up & Moving, a wonderful grassroots organization based in NYC. You might want to connect in order to work with them directly:
“Muslim Registrations”?
We have been here before.
As an organization that led the NYC efforts against NSEERS Special Registration in the aftermath of 9/11, lost hundreds of members to subsequent deportations, and still have members who survived, we know that we cannot cede an inch of ground to racists in power.
As DRUM members chanted at a march on Sunday, our goal must be:
“WE WILL NOT SUBMIT! WE WILL NOT COMPLY!”
We don’t need allies to volunteer to register; we need allies to join in the efforts to resist the creation of the program period!
Please stay tuned for next steps
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In September of 2002, Ashcroft and Bush announced the NSEERS (Special Registrations) program that forced non-citizen men from 25 countries (24 Muslim majority + North Korea –> Diversity!) to register with the government. Over 83,000 registered, and over 13,000 were put into deportation proceedings.
DRUM in partnership with allies (Prison Moratorium Project – Center for Nu-Leadership, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice [JFREJ], CHRI, and others) formed and led the Coalition Against Special Registrations, and held dozens of Know Your Rights trainings for community members in neighborhoods across the city and outside Federal Plaza, weekly vigils outside Federal Plaza, collecting info and contacts of registrants before they went in, a jail communication and support network, and organizing families whose loved ones registered and got detained or deported.