Ethnic profiling: Barbarians at the gate?

By Karim Farra

WAGHINGTON - Ever been questioned by United States immigration police? Ever been escorted by an armed guard into an interrogation room for apparently no good reason?  Do you think that as an international student at an Ivy League university these incidents would never happen to you? Well, think again.

New INS regulations, ostensibly targeting threats to US national security affect a broad range of the international community in the US. Ethnic profiling, while now perceived to be by government officials as a necessary tool for managing security concerns, would ultimately fail.

Ethnic profiling has a long and sordid history in the US. New Jersey Police’s penchant for pulling over mostly African-American drivers has resulted in negative publicity but no real change in policy.

Studies show an African-American driver is 10-times more likely to be targeted by the police than a Caucasian and that one in five Latino and Asian males also reported they had experienced being stopped unfairly by police for no reason but discrimination. This creates substantial resentment and fear of law enforcement among ethnic minorities, and goes against traditional American values of equality and freedom.

After Sept. 11, ethnic profiling has expanded to target those of Middle Eastern Origins. Congressman John Cooksey (R-LA) put it in blunt terms: “If I see someone who comes in that’s got a diaper on his head and a fan belt wrapped around the diaper on his head, that guy needs to be pulled over”.

Hearing this from an elected leader of a country that prides itself for its freedom sends shivers down my spine. Is this the beginning of a “big brother” state? The end of the American democratic culture as we know it?

A highly publicized fiasco of this new policy took place on a Florida highway last September. Three Arab-looking men were pursued by police and immediately arrested.  They turned out to be just regular medical students, and what police thought was a lead turned into a case of harassment. In the last year, countless similar incidents took place where guilt was associated with ethnicity rather than behavior.

Now I, along with a significant number of Wharton classmates, including citizens of Iran, Pakistan, Libya, Kuwait, Lebanon, Egypt, UAE, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Yemen and Iraq must comply with new regulations implemented on the first year anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks.

Even if we hold dual citizenships, we will now have to be fingerprinted, photographed, and extensively interviewed by an INS officer upon arrival to the US. After a month, we must be interviewed and fingerprinted yet again to confirm our identity.

In March, a classmate from Pakistan, who had a professional blue-chip record in the United States, unintentionally failed to adhere to those new rules and was not allowed re-entry into the United States from a trip abroad, only months before graduation. Have we done something wrong? Aren’t we here only to export our Wharton education and some good old American principles to make life better somewhere else? Are all people from Middle-Eastern origins here under false pretenses?

Two Lebanese INSEAD exchange students were not able to attend second quarter classes at Wharton because of infinite delays with the new paperwork associated with their visas. Are we safer because of their absence? Had they been here, would they have committed a horrible crime? Their Insead classmates wouldn’t have certainly thought so.

Would ethnic profiling of this sort have hindered the contributions and successes of others Middle Eastern expatriates? The U.S. may never have known people such as: Jacques Nasser (former CEO of Ford), George Shaheen (former CEO of Accenture), Casey Kasem (radio host – America’s top 40), Joseph Abboud (clothes designer), Ralph Nader (consumer advocate), Paula Abdul (singer), Salma Hayek (actress), or the late Edward Said (Professor at Columbia University).

Laws enacted to preserve public safety always have some unfortunate consequences. Americans trust their trust publicly elected officials to make sure that they are structured so that their benefits outweigh the possible negative consequences. This is the very basis of the American democratic system. But who is responsible when inefficient regulations cause more harm than good?

One of the most notorious terrorists of the last decade was Timothy McVeigh. No amount of profiling would have ever marked him as a suspect, especially since he is not Middle Eastern, African-American or Hispanic. Who would have guessed that the two Caucasian students at Columbine High School were murderers? What about serial killer Ted Bundy? Most described him as a handsome, educated man. His “normalness” was his most effective weapon.

I am a Saudi-born Syrian Lebanese Muslim student. By today’s stereotypes, I could be portrayed as the next mega-terrorist. However, the scary truth is that we do not know what the next terrorist would look like. But what we should know, through what history has taught us, is that crime has no ethnicity. 

Kareem Farra is an MBA student at the University of Wharton, Washington DC. He wrote this article for Alternative