NEW: CAIR Files Suit in Texas Challenging Placement of U.S. Muslims on Terror Watch Lists

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(DALLAS, TEXAS, 1/17/18) – The Dallas Fort-Worth chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-DFW), along with CAIR’s national civil rights department, today filed a lawsuit on behalf of several Muslims challenging their placement — without due process — in the government’s Terrorist Screening Database – a watch list of “known or suspected terrorists.”

CAIR’s lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court, Northern District of Texas, challenges the government’s widespread practice of designating Muslims on the watch lists without providing individuals notice of the basis for their placement and without offering a meaningful opportunity to contest this designation.

READ CAIR’S LAWSUIT: http://www.cair.com/images/pdf/Case-3-18-cv-00110-L.pdf

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of five Muslims who are American citizens and have all alleged to have experienced a range of severe consequences due to their placement on the watch list, including the inability to fly on airplanes, intrusive screenings at airports, and the denial of applications for credit cards and bank loans.

“The federal government’s placement of Muslims on a terror watch list without due process is a widespread practice that unfortunately affects many individuals in the DFW Metroplex,” said CAIR-DFW Legal Director Nikiya Natale. “Our hope is that the court rules this practice unconstitutional so that these law-abiding citizens can be free from the government’s religious, racial and ethnic profiling.”

“This database is nothing more than a list of innocent Muslim citizens who have not been arrested, charged or convicted of a crime,” said Senior Litigation Attorney Gadeir Abbas. “The extrajudicial use of this draconian and ineffective watch list is incompatible with the rule of law and our American values.”

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