Do Not Take Advantage of a Foreigner

Maria, a single mother, had supported her family by cleaning office buildings in San Jose ever since she arrived in the U.S. 11 years ago from Mexico. But after 9/11, she was fired for being undocumented. "This did not matter to them before," she explained. "They hired me and paid me $12 an hour for a decade. But I lost my job and couldn't find another one for nine months."

During that time, the family relied on help from their neighbors, and eventually had to ask for food from churches.

"Soon everyone around me was out of work. Everyone tried to help one another, but with so many people in trouble, it was impossible," Maria recalled. "I was so depressed and I still am, because I feel my dignity was taken away. My family's safety was taken away."

Maria (who asked not to reveal her last name) was one of nine immigrant speakers who shared their experiences during a community forum Sept. 25, held at a local mosque in Santa Clara, CA. The forum brought out local public officials, including state Assemblyman Manny Diaz (D-San Jose) and the district director for Rep. Mike Honda (D-San Jose), along with more than 150 community members to witness personal testimonies of racial profiling, economic hardship, and harassment post-9/11.

"These are not isolated incidents, but a glimpse into what's happened to thousands of people. Let's make their stories our stories -- a part of the public record," said Gina Acebo, a program director at the Applied Research Center, which organized the event as part of half a dozen "Public's Truth" forums being held around the country.

Jaime Escober, 69, worked for four years as a baggage screener while his wife Lilia worked as a pre-boarding screener at San Jose's airport. After the Federal Aviation Authority made citizenship a requirement for all airport security workers in November 2001, both Escober and his wife lost their jobs. They have been unable to find work and have lost their homes and cars.

"We have not been able to send money anymore to our children (in the Philippines)," Escober said. "This is an injustice. We were doing our job well."

Kavneet Singh Alag, a Bay Area activist, described the shootings of Sikh cab drivers and store owners whose turbans have made them one of the most targeted groups for racial backlash. After two murders in Arizona, and three cab drivers shot in Northern California in the last 11 weeks, Singh said, the Sikh community is wondering "not what's going to happen next, but really, when is it going to happen?

Another speaker related the story of Mr. "B," an Iranian who was in the process of updating his immigration status when he showed up for "special registration." The policy, begun toward the end of 2002, required non-citizens from 25 countries to submit to photographing and fingerprinting at federal immigration facilities.

As a result of coming forward, Mr. "B" was interrogated, shackled, and moved around jail cells in San Francisco, Arizona, Colorado, Bakersfield, and San Diego before he was released on bond to await a deportation hearing. During the special registration process thousands of other non-citizens have been deported.

Kathy Takeda, a member of the Japanese American Citizen's League, spoke for her father, Ed Takeda, who recalled watching his father being taken from their San Jose home by FBI agents at the start of World War II. The rest of the family soon afterward was interned at Gila River in Arizona, with no word of their father's whereabouts for five months.

Takeda said that the comparisons of September 11 to Pearl Harbor brought back traumatic memories to his father. "It really got to Dad. He said, 'Here we go again. They'll be hauled off to jail.' It's so eerie that he knew exactly what would happen-because it had happened to him and his family."