Documents received by the ACLU in response to its FOIA request paint an alarming picture of FBI Field Office activities. For example:
A 2009 Detroit FBI field office memorandum references State Department-designated terrorist groups originating in the Middle East and Southeast Asia and asserts that "because Michigan has a large Middle-Eastern and Muslim population, it is prime territory for attempted radicalization and recruitment by these terrorist groups."
A 2009 Atlanta FBI Intelligence Note purports to identify potential threats from "Black Separatist" groups (identified as including the National Black Panther Party and the Nation of Islam) and documents population increases among "black/African-American populations in Georgia" from 2000 to 2007.
Two 2009 San Francisco FBI memoranda state that the "San Francisco domain is home to one of the oldest Chinatowns in North America and one of the largest ethnic Chinese populations outside mainland China," and justify the opening of an investigation involving racial and national origin
mapping because "[w]ithin this community there has been organized crime for generations." The memoranda similarly justify mapping of the "sizable Russian population" in the region by referencing the existence of "Russian criminal enterprises" in San Francisco.
Several documents from FBI offices in Alabama, New Jersey, and Georgia show that the FBI is using the threat posed by the criminal gang Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), which was originally started by Salvadoran immigrants, to justify broad investigations targeting a wide variety of Latino-American communities. The Mobile, Alabama FBI's Intelligence Note (which states that MS-13's "primary criminal activity" in Mobile is "graffiti") contradicts the Newark FBI's assessment of the gang's ethnic composition, stating that while "MS-13 members are typically Salvadorans, Guatemalans, and Honduran nationals or first-generation descendants . . . MS-13 has been known to admit Mexicans, Dominicans, and non-Hispanic individuals." Yet the Mobile FBI office singled out and mapped demographic data for immigrants born in Central America.
The ACLU claims problems of this type emanate from a 2003 Justice Department publication, "Guidance Regarding the Use of Race by Federal Law Enforcement Agencies," The guidance prohibited the DOJ from using race "to any degree" in law enforcement investigations (unless describing a specific suspect).
But it carved out a loophole permitting racial and ethnic profiling in national security and border integrity investigations. Exploiting this loophole, in 2008, the FBI issued its Domestic Investigation and Operations Guide (DIOG), which permits FBI agents to conduct Domain
Management assessments, which include the authority to collect, analyze and "map" racial and ethnic demographic information and the location of ethnic-oriented business and facilities.
The DIOG also allows the FBI to collect and track "behavioral characteristics reasonably associated with a particular criminal or terrorist element of an ethnic community." This Domain Management authority is not limited to national security and border integrity investigations.
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