Under a new guidance
issued Monday by the Department of Justice, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. extended rules already barring federal law enforcement from profiling people based on their race and ethnicity to include national origin, religion, gender, gender identity and sexual orientation. The department also expanded the ban on racial profiling to national security cases. You can read the
guidance document here.
The new guidance expands on one barring racial profiling issued by the George W. Bush administration in 2003. The new rules have been in the works for five years. Buzzfeed's Chris Geidner cited remarks by an unnamed Justice Department official, who called the guidance a "signature accomplishment": “For the last several weeks, Attorney General Holder has diligently pressed for the revised policy to be finalized before he leaves office. [...] During the last two weeks in particular, it has been the first item on the agenda each day in his morning senior staff meetings.”
Holder himself said in a statement:
"Particularly in light of certain recent incidents we've seen at the local level and the widespread concerns about trust in the criminal justice process which so many have raised throughout the nation, it's imperative that we take every possible action to institute strong and sound policing practices."
While FBI agents, Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s civil immigration enforcement personnel, the Coast Guard and federal air marshals are fully covered by the guidance, it won't apply to the airport screeners of the Transportation Security Administration, the U.S. Border Patrol or the Secret Service agents who protect national leaders. Nor will it apply to state and local law enforcement except when they are working with federal task forces.
Some civil rights and civil liberties organizations say the guidance is a welcome expansion. But below the fold you can read their criticisms over why it didn't go further.
For instance, ACLU Washington Legislative Office Director Laura W. Murphy said in a statement:
The revised Guidance is an important step in reducing the prevalence of racial profiling in federal law enforcement. [However...]
The TSA and CBP exemptions are distressing, particularly because Latinos and religious minorities are disproportionately affected. Let's be clear: DHS wants to racially profile at the border because, as an anonymous immigration enforcement official said today, "There's a very specific clientele that we look for." That's code for Latinos and other people of color who look to DHS police like they don't "belong."
Additional criticism came from The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
The organization's president and CEO, Wade Henderson,
issued a statement:
“The Department of Justice should be commended for making desperately needed improvements to the federal profiling guidance for law enforcement. By expanding protected categories to include gender, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, and gender identity, and closing some longstanding enforcement loopholes, this policy will make law enforcement both more effective and reflective of our national commitment to fairness and diversity.
We remain troubled, however, by the following exceptions and loopholes that remain in the guidance:
• It does not apply to state and local law enforcement. We urge the Department of Justice to continue its work beyond this guidance to prevent the street-level profiling which is ongoing across the country and to hold agencies accountable for engaging in profiling.
• Exceptions remain for the Transportation Security Administration and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, two agencies that disproportionately profile Latinos, Arabs, South Asians, Muslims, and Sikhs.
• It does not ban the offensive practice of ‘mapping’ American communities based on stereotypes, nor does it appear to curtail the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s authority to engage in unlawful and abusive surveillance of innocent Americans.
Despite these concerns, the Department of Justice’s long-awaited revisions to its profiling guidance for federal law enforcement represent a significant step forward. Where it falls short, we will work with this administration to completely end profiling by all law enforcement.”
Getting the states to change their own odious practice of profiling is going to be a slugfest all the way.
A solution is for the federal government to bar profiling by police departments not just when they are involved directly with federal law enforcement but also if they receive grants, military equipment and training from the feds. That would cover a very large percentage of all police departments.