Looming TPS Announcement Raises Anxiety Among Syrians
By Mona Ahmed The fate of almost 7,000 Syrians residing in the U.S. with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) will likely be announced on January 31. Prior to that day, the Trump Administration must decide if the program will be extended for another 18-month period from March 31. TPS provides an...
Statement: AAI Responds to Rejection of the "Middle Eastern or North African" Category from the 2020 Census
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 26, 2018 CONTACT: Margaret Lowry, mlowry@aaiusa.org (202) 652-4993 Statement from AAI Executive Director Maya Berry on the Rejection of the “Middle Eastern or North African” Category from the 2020 Census: Today’s announcement from the Census Bureau that the 2020 Census would not include a new “Middle...
Statement: AAI Responds to White House Immigration Framework
Contact: jsalan@aaiusa.org For Immediate Release: January 26, 2018 Official Statement from AAI Executive Director Maya Berry: In response to the White House’s release of their framework for immigration reform, Arab American Institute Executive Director Maya Berry issued the following statement: “The White House’s proposal on immigration is not a serious starting...
The Right to Party: The Legacy of One AAIF Scholarship
By Mona Ahmad Leah Haidar received a 2017 AAIF Helen Abbott Community Service Award for her outstanding youth leadership and community service. Now in college, we caught up with Haidar, getting details on her groundbreaking Party Project and what she’s doing now. The Party Project Haidar started the Party Project...
Pence, Trump, and the End of the US Peace Process
By Mollie Todd “We stand with Israel, because we believe in right over wrong, in good over evil” – This was just one of several insensible statements from Mike Pence’s speech before the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, on Monday. To some, the speech seemed more like a sermon, as Pence’s rhetoric...
The Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act
In November Senator Durbin introduced the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act of 2017. The bill’s Findings section details the extensive problem of “right-wing extremists,” listing mass shootings, murders, and other attacks on US soil going back to 2012. Notably, the bill references a 2009 Homeland Security report on right-wing extremism which...
What Moves People to Action? A Talk with Dr. Dana Fisher
By Mona Ahmed “Moral shocks will motivate people to come out when they have little or no personal connection to political issues,” argued Dr. Dana Fisher, as she elaborated on how social movements develop and sustain momentum. She shared this, and other important perspectives as part of the first Arab...
By Mollie Todd Last week, President Trump took to Twitter to provide his opinions on the reauthorization of Title VII- Section 702 of the FISA act. It seemed that the President was originally unaware of what the act was, or that only Section 702 of the bill was being reauthorized....
Good enough for government work? Joint DOJ/DHS terrorism report presents misleading data.
At yesterday’s White House press briefing, Edward O’Callaghan, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General at the Justice Department’s National Security Division, discussed some of the findings published in Tuesday’s joint DOJ/DHS report on terrorism and immigration. The long-overdue report was released amidst an immigration debate on Capitol Hill that has seen...
By Mona Ahmed “The National Commision for Voter Justice is a people’s commission and will be one that the people can see, understand and participate in.” That’s how Pennsylvania State Senator Vincent Hughes described the transparency and mission of the newly formed National Commission for Voter Justice (NCVJ) during a...
