October, 27 2011, 03:32pm EDT
Forum Calls On Congress and Administration to End Racial Profiling
ACLU Hosts Event to Stop Discrimination
WASHINGTON
More than 50 policy experts, and others across the country via live stream and Twitter, joined Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) and the ACLU Washington Legislative Office for a discussion today about the desperate need for Congress and the Obama Administration to end racial profiling in law enforcement. A recording of the event will be available online starting Friday at www.aclu.org/3faceslive.
The forum called on Congress to pass the End Racial Profiling Act (ERPA) and for the Administration to change agency-run programs and guidelines that lead to profiling. The discussion focused on three prominent forms of racial profiling: historic racism against African-Americans in community and drug enforcement, the post-9/11 intelligence gathering and racial mapping particularly of Arab Muslims and South Asians and the profiling of Latinos, Asians and other people of color in the context of immigration and border enforcement.
"Before there was even a name for it, racial profiling has been engrained in our country's law enforcement practices," said ACLU Washington Legislative Office Director Laura W. Murphy. "But racial profiling not only goes against our Constitution and our country's value for equality - it also hinders law enforcement officials from doing their job. While Americans tend to think about racial profiling in isolated circumstances, the thread tying it all together is plain and simple discrimination."
Joining Ellison and Murphy on the panel were ACLU Senior Policy Counsel Mike German and ACLU Legislative Counsels Joanne Lin and Jennifer Bellamy.
ERPA was introduced in the U.S. Senate on Oct. 6 to prevent law enforcement from subjecting a person to heightened scrutiny based on race, ethnicity, religion or national origin, except when there is trustworthy information, relevant to the locality and timeframe, that links a person of a particular race, ethnicity, national origin or religion to an identified criminal incident or scheme. In addition to defining and explicitly prohibiting racial profiling, ERPA will mandate racial profiling training and data collection, authorize the grants for the development and implementation of best policing practices and require periodic reports from the attorney general on any continuing discriminatory practices. The legislation is also expected to also be introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives, following a House Judiciary Committee hearing on racial profiling Nov. 4.
"For years, many of our political leaders have vowed to put an end to racial profiling," Murphy concluded. "Attorney General Eric Holder has made it clear that ending the practice of racial profiling is a priority for the Obama administration. And certain members of Congress have echoed that sentiment. Now is the time for us to come together and end this unlawful practice."
The American Civil Liberties Union was founded in 1920 and is our nation's guardian of liberty. The ACLU works in the courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.
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Critics Decry Rubio's 'Deeply Unserious' State Department Overhaul Plan
One observer called the proposal "nothing less than an assault on American diplomacy."
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio's plan to streamline what he called the "bloated" State Department by slashing staff and closing or consolidating bureaus was widely criticized Tuesday as a dangerous retreat from diplomacy and soft power that would weaken U.S. standing abroad and boost adversaries.
"In its current form, the department is bloated, bureaucratic, and unable to perform its essential diplomatic mission in this new era of great power competition," Rubio said in a statement. "Over the past 15 years, the department's footprint has had unprecedented growth and costs have soared."
"But far from seeing a return on investment, taxpayers have seen less effective and efficient diplomacy," he added. "The sprawling bureaucracy created a system more beholden to radical political ideology than advancing America's core national interests. That is why today I am announcing a comprehensive reorganization plan that will bring the department into the 21st century."
Marco Rubio says the State Department has been “beholden to radical political ideology.” Also known as democracy.
[image or embed]
— Mark Jacob ( @markjacob.bsky.social) April 22, 2025 at 9:45 AM
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Christopher Le Mon, a former senior department official during the Biden administration, toldThe New York Times Tuesday that the plan's human rights scaleback "sends a clear signal that the Trump administration cares less about fundamental freedoms than it does about cutting deals with autocrats and tyrants."
In a Substack post published Tuesday, Rubio accused the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor of becoming "a platform for left-wing activists to wage vendettas against 'anti-woke' leaders" and the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration of funneling "millions of taxpayer dollars to international organizations and NGOs that facilitated mass migration around the world, including the invasion on our southern border."
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