By Kimmy Nevas
For less than an hour last Wednesday, Snell Library became a forum for discussion of immigration policies and terror suspects. Tram Nguyen, author of “We Are All Suspects Now: Untold Stories from Immigrant Communities after 9/11,” spoke about her book, which questions whether racial profiling contributes anything to counter-terrorism.
The book profiles individuals and families from six regions in North America, most of whom immigrated from countries with strained relations with the United States who are seeing their world change radically in the wake of September 11.
Nguyen’s subjects range from a Pakistani financial analyst-turned-community leader to vigilantes along the United States’ southern border to a Somali immigrant trying to navigate the legal system.
Nguyen said she met most of her subjects while covering September 11 for ColorLines magazine. She said she selected her subjects with an “eye toward the narrative of the past four years, starting with the secret roundups,” or the government’s questioning of potential terror suspects after September 11.
Nguyen said earning the trust of her interviewees was not a major issue. Networking through people they trusted, she found them “very eager to talk.” She was especially touched by a Somali imam, a Muslim religious leader, who told her, “You could be an FBI agent. But I choose to trust you. I don’t have anything to hide.”
The author is critical of asylum technicalities and laws that result in the deportation of immigrants who are illegally in the United States.
She said although the FBI has tried to change some of its tactics and make efforts to work with community leaders, she doesn’t think the agency has done enough.
In response to a question about the monitoring of human rights organizations, Nguyen said she had “heard of anti-war activists that have been surveillanced and in some cases arrested,” and that “there are activists on no-fly lists … At Friday sermons, people are afraid to come out and talk about Islam.”
International students especially said they took much of Nguyen’s presentation to heart.
Liliana Lopez, a senior political science major from El Salvador, said she enjoyed the discussion and the topics it brought to light.
“As an international student I think it’s good to inform the community and have a broader perspective and not more stereotypes,” Lopez said.
Gagan Mahan, a graduate student in computer engineering from India, said Nguyen’s comments were “pretty interesting,” and that her words raised questions about post-September 11 tactics.
“The biggest question is where to draw the line,” he said.
Nguyen said she thinks those lines are being drawn in the wrong places, threatening immigrants’ ability to remain in the United States.
During her talk, she read from her chapter on the Saeeds, a Pakistani family whose attempts to avoid deportation by American authorities took them from Manhattan to detention at the Canadian border and back again. At the conclusion of the book, 16-year-old Aleena Saeed ponders the consequences of their inevitable deportation to Pakistan.
Aleena, who aspired to be a doctor, decides the worst of her predicament is not losing money or friends, but “losing all your dreams.”
Nguyen questioned the sacrifices made by immigrants for anti-terrorism policy.
“Who is being sacrificed?” she said.
