The US is institutionalising discrimination against immigrants perceived to be Muslims, illegally delaying their citizenship applications, which is breaking families and disenfranchising entire communities, the Centre for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ) documented in a report.
“In the post-September 11, 2001 environment, the category of ‘terrorist’ has emerged as a racialised construct in which men perceived to be Muslim, Arab, Middle Eastern, or South Asian are classified as ‘terrorist Others,’” the report adds.
Though the law requires granting or denying citizenship within 120 days of an applicant’s examination, around 41,000 applicants, mainly Muslims and Arabs, had been waiting for three years or more. Repeated inquiries to immigration authorities, applicants say, fall on deaf ears.
US rights groups complain that racial profiling has been on the upswing since 9/11 attacks. The US Senate Office of Research has admitted that Muslims, estimated between six to seven million, have taken the brunt of federal powers applied after 9/11. The 63-page damning report insists that the institutionalized discrimination is leaving immigrants between a rock and a hard place.