The following resolution was adopted Wednesday, November 5th by the Executive Board of the San Francisco Labor Council, AFL-CIO. It has been forwarded to the Amer Jubran Defense Committee in Boston [P.O. Box 755, Jamaica Plain, MA, 02130] and to the Immigration and naturalization Service/bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in charge of this case.

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Resolution from the San Francisco Labor Council

WHEREAS, Mr. Amer Jubran, a legal Palestinian resident of the United States, who is a noted human rights activist, was arrested on November 4, 2002 after he helped lead a march for Palestinian rights in Boston, and was held in detention for 17 days by the FBI and Immigration & Naturalization Service in what must be considered a politically motivated attack; and

WHEREAS, Mr. Jubran was not charged with any immigration infraction to warrant detention, has commited no crime, and has done nothing more than exercise the rights to free speech and free assembly guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution; and

WHEREAS, Mr. Jubran was threatened with indefinite detention if he refused to waive his right to a lawyer and refused to talk about his political activity during an attempted FBI interrogation; and

WHEREAS, the FBI visited Mr. Jubran’s former wife and sister-in-law and tried to intimidate them into not testifying for Jubran in advance of the first round of his hearing in immigration court, falsely claiming to link him to illegal acts including 9/11; and

WHEREAS, the federal government continues to attempt to deport Mr. Jubran and intends to try him as a test case under the Patriot Act for his political activity; and

WHEREAS, the arrest, detention, and attempted deportation of Mr. Jubran falls clearly in the realm of the attacks on the rights of all of us to engage in free speech and legal activism, and in the targeting of immigrants—particularly Arabs & South Asians—since September 11, 2001, and is at the heart of the Bush Administration’s continued campaign to substitute the Patriot Act for the U.S. Constitution;

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that the San Francisco Labor Council demands that the deportation proceedings against Amer Jubran be dropped immediately, and once again reaffirms for this Labor Council that the Patriot Act must be repealed.

M/S/C

Executive Committee
San Francisco Labor Council

Nov. 5, 2003