We ask that you take quick online action to end racial and religious profiling today! Email Senators, including those on the Judiciary Committee, to co-sponsor the End Racial Profiling Act (ERPA).

What’s Happening

This Sunday, June 17th, the Sikh Coalition will join thousands in New York City for a silent march against racial and religious profiling.

Whether attention is being given to Sikh concerns at the airport as a result of the FlyRights mobile app release, the national discussion around the Trayvon Martin tragedy, the lawsuits filed regarding the stops and frisks of Blacks and Latinos in New York City, or the surveillance of Muslims in New York City, there is an unprecedented national conversation unfolding on racial and religious profiling. And so, today as we prepare to join our allies to march on Sunday, we ask you to send letters to Senators, urging them to co-sponsor and pass the End Racial Profiling Act of 2011 (ERPA – S. 1670).

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The Problem

Racial and religious profiling is the law enforcement practice of targeting and/or treating individuals differently based on their actual or perceived race, ethnicity, religion, or national origin.  It is pervasive across the United States and continues largely unchecked, violating constitutional and human rights in many communities. Racial and religious profiling has proven ineffective in fighting crime and, because it relies on stereotypes, innocent people are harmed and degraded, leading to a loss of trust in law enforcement.

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The Solution

ERPA would ban profiling by federal, state, and local law enforcement based on race, ethnicity, religion, or national origin.  ERPA takes these important steps to ban racial profiling:

• Makes it unlawful for federal, state, local, or Indian tribal law enforcement to profile based on race, religion, ethnicity or national origin;
• Creates a private right of action for victims of profiling, which would allow individuals who believe they have been subjected to racial profiling to sue the agency they believe to have violated ERPA;
• Allows the U.S. Attorney General to withhold grants from state law enforcement agencies that are not complying with ERPA;
• Requires training on racial profiling for law enforcement agents;
• Requires data collection and monitoring mechanisms such as complaint processes; and
• For the first time, ERPA prohibits racial profiling in the context of law enforcement surveillance activities.

Will you e-mail the Senators on the Judiciary Committee today to ask them to co-sponsor ERPA?

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