Know Your Rights Information 4 Arabs and Muslims in US

Know Your Rights Information



The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) has confirmed reports that FBI agents are contacting Arab and Muslim Americans, including citizens, for what has again been described as voluntary interviews. The FBI has communicated information about the latest initiative directly to ADC.

ADC would like to remind members of the Arab, Muslim, and Arab-American communities that equal protection and due process rights are afforded to everyone, including non-citizens, in the United States. ADC urges anyone who is contacted by the FBI to contact the ADC Legal Department and provide details of the incident by calling (202) 244-2990, sending a fax to (202) 244-3196, or via email to legal [at] adc.org



ADC offers the following guidelines to anyone who is contacted by the FBI or other law enforcement agencies. Please see other valuable information included below.



1) Make sure an attorney is present at all times during any voluntary interview the person may choose to attend. It is important to note that everything you say to an FBI agent or other law enforcement representative is recorded, nothing is 'off the record,' including immigration status.



2) The interviewee may determine the date, time, location of the interview, and who may attend the interview, including an interpreter if needed. The FBI is required to provide an interpreter if requested.



3) Bear in mind that all such interviews are completely voluntary and that no one is obligated to volunteer to speak with an FBI agent or other law enforcement representative or answer any questions without a court-approved document.



4) The interviewee has absolute discretion as to what questions to answer in such a voluntary interview. For example, one may choose to answer questions about their neighborhood and yet refuse to answer any questions regarding their immigration status. However, anything and everything you say during these voluntary interviews is 'on the record'.



Upon request, ADC will do its best to provide third party observers, in cases where potential interviewees would want such additional safeguards. Additional useful "Know Your Rights" information can be found on the ADC website at: http://www.adc.org/index.php?id=275



For helpful information from the ACLU, please click the link below:

http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=16216&c=272



The National Lawyers Guild has also created know your rights

information in a number of languages, for English see:

http://www.nlg.org/resources/kyr/kyr_English2004.pdf



For an Arabic version, please see:

http://www.nlg.org/resources/kyr/KYR_Arabic_national_low.pdf

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https://www.adc.org/membership/