'Patriot Act' boils down to
Racist repression against immigrants
By John Catalinotto
It didn't take long for the repressive atmosphere fostered
by the "Patriot Act" to impact on daily life in the U.S. It has
been especially intimidating for immigrants in general, and
those from the Middle East in particular.
Early stories that over 1,000 immigrants were rounded up and
held for investigation after Sept. 11, many then held weeks or
even months for alleged immigration violations, have made the
threats serious. That the government has released little or no
information about the outcome of these "investigations" has
increased the tension.
Accompanying the government repression has been
discrimination against Middle Eastern people and Muslims.
A few of the more extraordinary stories have made it into
the big-business media. According to Arab-American
organizations, many more cases are unreported.
Thanos Tzounopoulos' experience was more likely to make the
papers. Tzounopoulos, a Greek citizen and permanent resident of
the U.S., is an accomplished neuroscientist and assistant
professor at Oregon Health and Science University.
On Nov. 9, he was on his way from Portland to the Society of
Neuroscience's annual meeting in San Diego. There he was to
present his study of "enhanced synaptic plasticity and learning
in mice lacking the afterhyperolization."
To someone on the Alaska Airlines plane, Tzounopoulos
appeared too "strange" and "uncomfortable" as he sat reviewing
his notes in seat 19C.
The next thing he knew, the 32-year-old Tzounopoulos was
being ordered by an Alaska Airlines employee to grab his stuff
and get off the plane, according to The Oregonian of Nov.
14.
Tzounopoulos flies Alaska Airlines about 50 times a year.
He'll probably find a way to keep flying. But it's a bigger
question as to whether Mohammad Rahat will get his job back at
the University of Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital.
Rahat turned 22 last Sept. 11. Despite the gloom that day,
his co-workers held a little party for the Iranian-born medical
technician.
Rahat spoke out against U.S. policy toward the Middle East.
He said that day, "Some birthday gift from Osama bin Laden!"
According to Rahat this was in a sarcastic tone. He continued
to criticize the U.S. war on Afghanistan.
Rahat was fired, reported the Miami Herald of Nov. 16. He
blames it not as much on his remarks as on his origins, and is
fighting the university authorities legally to win his job
back. Whether the discrimination is against his origin, his
opinions, or both, it is an attack on his right to earn a
living.
Plan to interrogate 5,000
Attorney General John Ashcroft, who the Senate approved
despite his racist and anti-abortion record, has had his
department compile a list of 5,000 foreign men living in the
United States. Most of these men are from Middle Eastern
countries. The FBI is preparing to interrogate all of them,
seeking them out for "voluntary interviews."
This news has already sent a shudder through the
Arab-American communities in the U.S. It's a shudder of fear
that authorities provoke, but also of anger at being singled
out for persecution.
That the government is profiling Middle Eastern and other
Muslim people opens up the door to the kind of discrimination
faced by Rahat in Miami and the abuse Tzounopolous had to put
up with from Alaska Airlines.
The anti-immigrant discrimination also flies in the face of
the needs of the U.S. economy for specialized skills that
immigrants have been bringing in for decades, also called the
brain drain. Almost 550,000 foreign students attended U.S.
colleges and universities in the academic year ending June
2001. They contribute greatly to both research programs and to
tuition, paying more than their proportionate share.
When California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, joining the
chauvinist chorus, proposed a moratorium on issuing visas to
foreign students, she was surprised to find it aroused strong
opposition from university officials. Feinstein dropped her
proposal but is now promoting a bill to investigate the
students and track them overseas.
The Bush administration's move to expand its police powers
has aroused opposition from what has lately been an
extraordinarily docile Congress and media. Bush's announcement
that he would convoke military courts drew an angry response
from a range of bourgeois commentators, from William Safire on
the right to the editorial boards of the Washington Post and
Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
So far, however, there is no sign that Bush is pulling back
on this question. A military court would allow the U.S. to try
whoever they deemed a suspected foreign terrorist, without
observing the rules of evidence of a civilian U.S. court, with
extensive secrecy, and needing only a two-thirds majority of
officer-judges to convict.
Even Safire called this a "kangaroo court." But don't expect
any progressive alternative from that quarter. His preferred
solution was to have the U.S. military execute suspected
terrorists on the ground in Afghanistan, allegedly in
battle.
Reprinted from the Nov. 29, 2001, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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