The Brennan Center for Justice, along with over 50 other human rights, civil liberties, and community-based organizations sent a letter urging leadership in the House of Representatives and the Senate to reject proposals to expand existing Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) programs to focus on white supremacist extremism. This approach, the letter argues, will not be effective or make the country safer, but will undermine fundamental rights.
Experience with CVE programs in the U.S. shows that they almost uniformly identify protected political and religious views as a basis for identifying people who might be terrorists, baselessly flagging innocuous activity as identifying individuals with a propensity for terrorism and suppressing religious observance and religious and political speech.
Each of the undersigned groups vigorously opposes the hatred, bigotry, and xenophobia expressed by white supremacists, but extending CVE to target these groups risks diverting security resources to policing political viewpoints, instead of focusing on lawless conduct.
Advocates for Youth
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC)
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
American Friends Service Committee
Arab American Institute
ARTICLE 19
Asian Americans Advancing Justice- Asian Law Caucus
Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Atlanta
Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Los Angeles
Bend the Arc Jewish Action
Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law
Campaign for Liberty
Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR)
Center for Media Justice
Center for New Community
Church World Service
CLEAR (Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility) Project at CUNY Law
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
Defending Rights & Dissent
Fight for the Future
Franciscan Action Network
Free Press Action Fund
Friends Committee on National Legislation
Government Accountability Project
Hip Hop Caucus
Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center
Just Foreign Policy
Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation Committee -Sisters of St. Francis
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
Liberty Coalition
MPower Change
Muslim Advocates
Muslim Anti-Racism Collaborative
Muslim Justice League
Muslim Legal Fund of America (MLFA)
NAACP
National Center for Lesbian Rights
National Center for Transgender Equality
National Council of Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA)
National Network for Arab American Communities
National Religious Campaign Against Torture
NIAC (National Iranian American Council) Action
Pesticide Action Network
PolicyLink
Project South
Restore the Fourth
RootsAction.org
The Rutherford Institute
South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT)
STAND: The Student-Led Movement to End Mass Atrocities
Unitarian Universalist Service Committee
X-Lab
Citing Civil Liberties Concerns, the Brennan Center and Over 50 Groups Oppose Expanding Countering Violent… by The Brennan Center for Justice on Scribd