"Everybody has a right not to talk to any government agent. And we recommend that everybody talk to an attorney before talking to any government agent," said Riva Enteen, program director for the Bay Area chapter of the National Lawyer's Guild. The guild has set up a 24-hour hotline that potential interviewees may call for free legal advice.
Advocates stressed that they wish to cooperate with federal officials. But they question national policies that, post-Sept. 11, have led to the questioning and detention of thousands of Arab and Muslim men. "The problem is, these interviews are based on race and ethnicity, not on any suspicion that anyone has done anything wrong," said Jayashri Srikantiah, staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California.
Advocates are concerned that people who consent to interviews could see some of their information passed to immigration officials. But FBI spokeswoman LaRae Quy said the agency's intent is not to find immigration violations but to gather information to help the country fight Iraq. She said her office has not arrested anyone in the course of the interviews, and that people here legally have no reason to fear the FBI.
FBI officials have been granted the power to detain people on alleged immigration violations if they can't press criminal charges, advocates said. And the agency is working with the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement to find Iraqi nationals who are in the country illegally, according to a press release BICE released Thursday.
The American Civil Liberties Union
hotline for Iraqis who are being questioned by the
FBI is (415) 285-1055.
``It's extremely important for the immigrant community to know that immigration status does not equate with no legal rights,'' said Robert Rubin, director of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights in San Francisco, one of Bay Area groups offering free legal advice.
The ACLU reports that a coalition of Chicago-area legal organizations moved quickly today to open a telephone hotline and to mobilize volunteer lawyers offering free legal services for Iraqi Americans and Iraqi immigrants designated for questioning by the U.S. Department of Justice as the Bush Administration prepares to take military action in Iraq.
Help likely will be available around the country very soon.
"People targeted for investigation are undoubtedly in need of legal counsel," said Harvey Grossman, Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois. "It is in the highest tradition of the American bar that these organizations and attorneys step forward and offer their services without compensation to these individuals. In so doing, these attorneys also fulfill our fundamental constitutional values."
