Washington–The National Coalition of South Asian Organizations (NCSO) is urging support for the passage of “S. 1670, End Racial Profiling Act of 2011.” It noted the “landmark legislation aims to eliminate racial and religious profiling that has singled out various minority communities in country.”

The coalition urges South Asian Americans and other Asian Americans nationwide to contact their senators and ask them to co-sponsor the bill. It added they can also sign a petition calling upon the President to support anti-profiling policies. For more information, South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) urges them to contact SAALT Policy Director Priya Murthy at priya@saalt.org.

NCSO is a network of community-based organizations across the country. SAALT coordinates the NCSO.

Lawmakers filed the bill, S. 1670, in the Senate last month. The bill was introduced by Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland. It is co-sponsored by Senators Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Dick Durbin of Illinois, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, John Kerry of Massachusetts, Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, Carl Levin of Michigan, Robert Menendez of New Jersey, Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan.

SAALT said that since September 11th, South Asian, Muslim, Sikh and Arab communities in the country “have been targeted for heightened scrutiny by law enforcement based on their religion, ethnicity, national origin, or nationality.”

It added: “Examples include frequent searches by airport security and border inspection officers, mandatory registration of certain male nationals from predominantly Muslim-majority countries, including Pakistan and Bangladesh, under the National Security Entry Exit Registration System (NSEERS) program, and targeted surveillance of South Asian places of worship by federal and local law enforcement.”

SAALT said, “This bill will address the harmful impact of profiling by prohibiting various forms of the practice, including in the travel and surveillance contexts; requiring training and data collection on profiling for entities receiving federal law enforcement funding; supporting law enforcement initiatives that do not result in profiling; establishing complaint mechanisms; creating privacy protections for individuals whose data is collected; and allowing affected individuals to file lawsuits to seek redress.

It added that “Not only does profiling waste limited government resources by misdirecting scrutiny to innocent individuals, it also seriously erodes trust between law enforcement agencies and our communities.”