Whereas, on September 11, 2001, the Nation experienced the deadliest attacks ever perpetrated on American soil;

Whereas nearly 3,000 people perished in the September 11, 2001, attacks;

Whereas over 4,500 people have died from 9/11 related illnesses, and many still suffer long-term, bodily trauma from inhaling toxic dust and rubble;

Whereas the United States experienced immeasurable fear, sorrow, outrage, and loss;

Whereas Balbir Singh Sodhi, a Sikh, was murdered in Mesa, Arizona, on September 15, 2001;

Whereas Waqar Hasan in Dallas, Texas, and Adel Karas in San Gabriel, California, were killed on September 15, 2001;

Whereas, in the first month after the attack, community organizations documented 945 incidents of bias and hate in the workplace, houses of worship, schools, homes, and in public life against Americans perceived to be of Middle Eastern or South Asian descent;

Whereas hundreds of police, fire fighters, and first responders lost their lives in the rescue effort, including members from the Arab, Muslim, Middle Eastern, South Asian, and Sikh communities;

Whereas Arab, Muslim, Middle Eastern, South Asian, and Sikh communities have long experienced discrimination and violence in the United States, which intensified after the attacks;

Whereas there was a climate of hate in which Arab, Muslim, Middle Eastern, South Asian, and Sikh communities experienced bullying and violence in their everyday lives and in their workplaces, businesses, community centers, and houses of worship;

Whereas the government targeted Arab, Muslim, Middle Eastern, South Asian, and Sikh communities with overreaching policing, surveillance, and criminalization policies that resulted in wrongful interrogation, coercion, detention, deportation, arrest, and incarceration;

Whereas core principles like due process, presumption of innocence, and evidence of wrongdoing were replaced with mob mentality and guilt by association;

Whereas the fearmongering and hateful rhetoric witnessed in the aftermath of the attacks remain commonplace today;

Whereas border officials and government authorities cast aside constitutional rights and engaged in discriminatory searches and seizures of Arab, Muslim, Middle Eastern, South Asian, and Sikh community members;

Whereas false narratives about Arabs, Islam, and American Muslims abound, and are encouraged and justified by a network of closely connected and well-funded organizations and activists that seek to propagate misinformation about these communities and provide support for policies that curtail their rights;

Whereas the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, as well as human rights violations ranging from torture at Guantanamo Bay to extrajudicial drone strikes, also contributed to this climate of hate and the government targeting of these communities;

Whereas Arab, Muslim, Middle Eastern, South Asian, and Sikh communities have experienced humiliation, stigma, deprivation of due process, and loss of liberty because of government targeting, which reinforced the climate of hate;

Whereas the climate of hate and government targeting impacted the ability of these communities to exercise their constitutionally protected rights including to organize, speak, travel, and worship freely;

Whereas the 2002 National Security Entry-Exit Registration System required men and boys as young as 16 years of age with temporary visas from 25 predominantly Muslim countries to register at local immigration offices for fingerprinting, photographs, and invasive interviews;

Whereas, by July 2003, the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System slated 13,000 out of 83,000 registered men and boys for deportation, decimating entire communities and resulting in zero terror-related convictions;

Whereas the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Immigration and Naturalization Service questioned thousands of Muslims who they believed might have information about or connections to criminal activity based on improper criteria such as an officer hunch or an anonymous tip from people wrongfully suspicious of their Muslim neighbors;

Whereas, immediately after the September 11 attacks, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and immigration authorities arrested and detained as many as 1,200 Muslims, and none of these special interest detained people were ultimately indicted for terrorist activity;

Whereas, to this day, Joint Terrorism Task Forces Preemptive Prosecutions, Countering Violent Extremism Programs, Suspicious Activity Reporting, Watchlists, Fusion Centers, Counterterrorism Databases, the permissive Department of Justice Racial Profiling Guidance, and other policies continue to profile and unfairly target Arab, Muslim, Middle Eastern, South Asian, Sikh, Black, and African communities;

Whereas, to this day, restrictions prevent immigrants and refugees from entering the United States due to the current travel ban targeting 19 countries, and immigrant communities are being torn apart due to attacks on birthright citizenship and the 14th Amendment, increased immigration enforcement and detentions, terminations of Temporary Protected Status designations, barriers to family reunification, and other immigration policies that aim to surveil, arrest, detain, deport, and silence members of Arab, Muslim, Middle Eastern, South Asian, Sikh, Black, and African communities;

Whereas the recent escalation of conflict in the Middle East has caused a significant rise in discrimination and violence against the same Arab, Muslim, Middle Eastern, South Asian, and Sikh communities who experienced a rise in discrimination and violence in the aftermath of September 11;

Whereas many politicians and influential members of the general public continue to explicitly endorse, espouse, and act upon this hateful rhetoric and use it for their own political benefit, including Members of Congress and State and local elected officials; and

Whereas Arab, Muslim, Middle Eastern, South Asian, and Sikh communities have met these challenges with unwavering courage, strength, compassion, and resilience, and united in the aftermath of 9/11 to advocate for civil and human rights, work which continues to this day to benefit all Americans: Now, therefore, be it