Amer Jubran Defense
Committee
P.O. Box 755, Jamaica
Plain, MA 02130
For further information,
contact Scott Cooper at 617-964-8029
November 15, 2002
Picket and Rally at INS Demands Release of Jailed Palestinian
Activist: Local Leaders Denounce Abuse of “Homeland Security”
The plaza in front of the JFK Federal Building in Boston
was the scene of a spirited picketline of more than 75 people this morning.
Demonstrators demanded the immediate release of jailed human rights activist
Amer Jubran. The picket began at 8:00 a.m., followed by a 9:00 a.m. press conference
and rally at which local civil liberties advocates and political activists addressed
the Jubran case and other attacks on the right to free speech. Jubran, a Palestinian,
is a permanent resident of the United States with irreproachable immigration
credentials.
On Mon., Nov. 4, at 8:00 a.m., FBI and INS agents entered
Jubran’s Rhode Island. Jubran had led a legal march and rally in Boston only
two days earlier commemorating the 85th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration.
He has been threatened with “indefinite detention” after refusing to cooperate
with the FBI, which sought to question him without counsel present. After a
concerted international campaign to demand Jubran’s release, a bond hearing
has been scheduled for Thurs., Nov. 21, at 9:00 a.m. at the JFK Federal Building.
Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner, who has worked
closely with Jubran to ensure that rallies and marches in Boston have been legal
and permitted, spoke at this morning’s rally and warned of assaults against
constitutional rights and guarantees and a growing atmosphere of political repression.
Nancy Murray of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts denounced
the attack on Jubran as an attack on the right to speak out against government
policies. No charges have been filed against Jubran, nor has he done anything
that would warrant his detention.
Urszula Masny-Latos of the National Lawyers Guild expressed
“outrage” and characterized the treatment of Jubran as “only one example of
the flagrant abuses of human rights perpetrated by the Department of Justice
over the past 13 months.” She characterized the “treatment of law-abiding immigrants
such as Mr. Jubran” as “an affront to basic principles of democracy.”
Nelson Brill, Jubran’s immigration lawyer, explained
elements of the case and drew the connections between Jubran’s treatment and
the generalized harassment that has confronted immigrant workers in the post-Sept.
11 environment. Other speakers included Richard Hugus, a member of the Defense
Committee who has visited Jubran in prison, and Steve Gillis, a local leader
of International A.N.S.W.E.R., who drew the links between the Jubran case and
the effort to frame Haitian school bus driver Marcus Jean as a terrorist. Jean
was found “not guilty” yesterday in West Roxbury District Court.
Notably, when a delegation from the Amer Jubran Defense
Committee attempted to enter the JFK Federal Building and go to the INS office,
as had been done on Tuesday, Nov. 12, police barred entry to this public building on the orders of INS Deputy
District Director Denis C. Riordan, who claimed that because a bond hearing
had been set, the case was now out of his office’s hands. The delegation had
sought to invite an INS representative to explain to the crowd why Jubran was
being detained illegally. Eventually, two members of the delegation were able
to meet with Riordan and delivered the Defense Committee’s demand that Amer
Jubran be released immediately.
The detention
of Jubran is a politically motivated attack on free speech and legal activism. It is the local face of “homeland
security,” and threatens the civil liberties and constitutional guarantees of
all.