As’Salaamu Alaikum Community Members,
I write to you on behalf of our legal team to convey Ramadan greetings as well as wishing you and your families the best of health, spiritual abundance and spirits. As another month of sheltering-in-place went by this April, CAIR-California (CAIR-CA) published their statewide annual legal report and expanded our legal services to reflect the needs of the community by advising on situations involving housing issues and evictions, stimulus payments and generally, unemployment benefits.
This past month, our office received a slew of intakes from community members who have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic or anticipate being affected in the near future. Community members reached out to CAIR-SFBA’s office querying their eligibility and application for unemployment benefits with California’s Employment Development Department (EDD), which is responsible for administering unemployment benefits. Other clients had similar questions around their eligibility for stimulus payments as well as how to track disbursements given the extended July 15, 2020 deadline for tax filing. Adding on to the concerns and worries around financial difficulties have been questions about rent, even despite certain counties and cities around the Bay Area imposing eviction moratoriums. CAIR-SFBA attorneys remain ready to provide guidance on how to navigate rent adjustments and delays.
In April, CAIR-CA also shared the release of CAIR-California’s (CAIR-CA) statewide Annual Legal Report 2020. This report detailed and summarized incidents of religious-based discrimination, anti-Muslim bias incidents, and immigration matters reported to all four CAIR-CA offices throughout the state – San Francisco Bay Area, (CAIR-SFBA), San Diego (CAIR-SD), the Greater Los Angeles Area (CAIR-LA), and the Sacramento Valley/Central California (CAIR-SV) in the prior calendar year. The report highlighted an increased demand for immigration services and the corresponding provision of legal services by CAIR-CA offices, with immigration matters reported to CAR-CA increasing from 1,203 in 2018 to 1,305 in 2019, an 8.5% uptick.
Additionally, CAIR-CA’s civil rights attorneys focused their advocacy on behalf of Muslim students and their families with reported matters involving bullying, harassment, and discrimination in schools jumping from 72 in 2018 to 89 cases in 2019, a troubling increase of 24% in such incidents being reported.
Closer to home in the Bay Area, some clients and communities CAIR-SFBA’s legal team assisted:
- Multiple vulnerable community members including helping a survivor of domestic violence in obtaining a green card after fleeing the home she shared with her abusive spouse. The client, a new mother, contacted CAIR-SFBA’s office towards the end of her pregnancy seeking assistance in obtaining a green card. CAIR-SFBA worked closely with her to remove conditions on her residency using immigration laws that assist victims of domestic violence thereby guaranteeing that she could remain in the U.S. As a permanent resident now, the client is well on her path to citizenship and to building a better life for herself and her young son.
- A 12-year old Bay Area native and promising U.S. National Squash team player, Ms. Fatima Abdel¬rahman, in a complaint against Air Canada for discriminatory treatment against her as she boarded a flight. An Air Canada employee approached Ms. Abdelrahman and demanded that she remove her hijab allegedly as part of the airlines’ pre-boarding identification procedures. CAIR-SFBA attorneys contacted Air Canada who later apologized for their treatment of Ms. Abdelrahman, clarifying that they had remodeled their existing policy to ensure strict adherence to anti-discriminatory statues, respect for all individuals’ religious beliefs and for accommodation requests by customers.
- A Rohingya community member who fled Myanmar after being attacked by extremist Buddhist monks, who targeted him because he was identified by his assailants as being Muslim. Having escaped the attempt on his life and entering the U.S. on a tourist visa, the client sought asylum in the U.S. The client worked closely with CAIR-SFBA immigration attorneys in presenting significant evidence of the threat of lynching and torture he would face in Myanmar, drafting a detailed declaration, and preparing him for his asylum interview. CAIR-SFBA’s immigration attorneys were also successful in obtaining a work permit for the client allowing him to sustain himself in the meantime.
If you or a loved one need assistance with coronavirus-related unemployment assistance filing, stimulus payment tracking, housing issues, or any other myriad of civil rights or immigration issues, please reach out to us through our incident report form.
We are at the ready to assist you during these unprecedented times.
Sincerely,
Ammad Rafiqi, Esq.
Civil Rights & Legal Services Coordinator