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Racial Profiling

 

            
             On June 17, 2003, President Bush fulfilled one of his campaign promises by banning racial and ethnic profiling in all 70 federal agencies with law enforcement powers under the direction of the Justice Department. This will affect roughly 120,000 U.S. law enforcement officers including those from the FBI, DEA, Homeland Security Department, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Coast Guard. The policy still allows for consideration of raceif information has been found that people of a certain race or ethnicity are involved in a specific crime or a criminal organization. Critics call this a loophole for government groups to use racial profiling whenever they deem necessary. Miriam Gohara, an attorney for the NAACP said, "It looks to me that it is more interested in carving out exceptions to racial profiling than it is in enforcing a ban." .
             Since the Sept. 11 attacks our nation suffered there has been increased scrutiny among people appearing to be from an Islamic, Arabic, or Middle Eastern countries, they are under greater surveillance from law enforcement and endure longer detention for immigration violations. However, the ban on racial profiling was not spurred by this event, President Bush had planned on this since before his administration began. Attorney General John Ashcroft was directed by the president to assess the situation and recommend new guidelines, which the president approved. Being the first administration to issue a formal policy on racial profiling, Bush and his people are receiving much criticism due to inconsistencies in the policy. One of these problems is that the ban only prohibits federal agencies from racial profiling, state and local agencies are not applicable. Nonetheless this is a step in the right direction and a great start but in the near future more must be done about this rampant problem.
             An incident which occurred in 1998 spurred the controversy of racial profiling and for the first time put it out in the eyes of the nation and made it a real issue.


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