ABSTRACT
Increased security measures naturally followed directly from 9/11, but they unfortunately included the authorities’ ethnic and racial profiling of mostly foreign-born South Asians and Middle Eastern-appearing individuals. US governmental officials responded frenetically to September 11. Among other things, federal authorities immediately questioned and detained hundreds of immigrants from Islamic countries,1 and Congress rushed to pass the Patriot Act2 in such a short time that not only did US representatives little debate the bill, but few had time to read the “complex, far reaching anti-terrorism [and anti-immigrant] legislation” in its entirety.3 Following the aftermath of September 11, policies and practices against the foreign-born have continued. Aside from former President George W. Bush’s authorizing military tribunals to try only foreigners, not American citizens,4,5 both the state and federal governments, often with the help of private citizens,6 have engaged in unprecedented racial profiling of innocent South Asians, Arabs, and Muslims living in the US.7
