LOS ANGELES: JUSTICE FOR ALL? Dec 19 2002
INS Interns Hundreds, Refuses to Report
For their cooperation in an INS voluntary registration program, an
unspecified number of Iranian and Middle Eastern nationals, estimated in
the hundreds, have been detained indefinitely, cut off from family and
legal assistance. Officials are refusing to report the identities or
individual charges against those detained while LA area jails are overflowing.
The Southern California chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union
received numerous phone calls for assistance from families of those
detained, and many are comparing the arrests to the internment of Japanese
Americans in camps during the Second World War. On Wednesday, December 18,
more than three thousand persons, mostly Iranian Americans, rallied outside
the Westwood Federal Building in LA to protest the roundups [ 1 ].
Meanwhile, solidarity protests are already planned, including one on Friday
in Portland.
The detentions are currently receiving little comparative attention in US
dominant media, with original coverage limited to an article in the Los
Angeles Times and a wire report [ audio ]. More information is available
from the LA IMC Dec 19 feature.
[ Los Angeles IMC | Payvand News of Iran | Alliance of Iranian Americans ]
