On Monday, May 1, through Tuesday, May 2, CAIR-Columbus and a group of its members will join more than 350 Muslims from 26 states for the third annual National Muslim Advocacy Day on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.
Category: recent news
On Sunday, April 23, CAIR-Columbus Legal Director Romin Iqbal spoke at a town hall meeting jointly organized by the Indivisible Group Districts 3, 12, and 15 at the First Unitarian Universalist Church in Columbus.
Yesterday, President Trump rolled-back FCC protections designed to stop your internet provider from selling your internet history without your permission. Now ISPs can make a quick buck by selling your data to big business or even the government. The changes go farther, allowing ISPs to implement new technologies to spy on their users and break the encryption that keeps millions of Americans depend on.
At a time when we spend an expanding part of our lives online, digital privacy is indispensable to our civil rights. CAIR-Ohio recently helped file a brief in federal court, arguing that a warrant should be needed to search your phone at the border.
CAIR-Columbus Legal Director Romin Iqbal participated in a town-hall debate organized by local news station ABC6 on March 20, 2017. The debate was on the new refugee and travel ban on six Muslim majority countries by President Trump. Iqbal opposed the ban and debated the issue with Mr. Jason Beardsley and Mr. Michael Gonidakis who were in support of the ban. The debate was lively with a lot of back and forth between the three participants. Iqbal argued that the ban did not advance US security interests, that it was, in fact, detrimental to American interests and that the ban would not be able to survive Court challenges on its constitutionality.
You can watch the debate at: http://abc6onyourside.com/news/local/town-hall-immigration-and-the-state-of-the-union
CAIR-Columbus Legal Director Romin Iqbal gave a presentation at the North Congregational United Church of Christ on March 26, 2017. The presentation was well attended by members of the Church and lasted for around ninety minutes. In the first half of the presentation, Iqbal spoke about the legal issues relating to the travel and refugee ban by the President, the new directive by the DHS on treatment of undocumented migrants, and the various civil rights challenges faced by the Muslim community in Ohio. The first half was followed by a question and answer session where Iqbal took questions from an attentive audience on the travel ban, on avenues for providing support to the Ohio Muslim community, and on other issues covered in his presentation.
On Monday, March 27, CAIR-Columbus and attorney Inna Simakovsky were recognized by Columbus City Council for their outstanding legal work representing a group of immigrants who were faced with losing their commercial drivers licenses. Jennifer Nimer and Simakovsky held a legal clinic open to the public on New Year’s Day to provide free appeals for anyone who walked through the door. Overall they filed over 45 appeals, which ultimately led the Ohio BMV to reverse its policy and not revoke the CDL licenses.
Click here to view video of of the resolution being presented at the City Council meeting and to hear the remarks made by City Council.
BEFORE YOU GET TO THE AIRPORT:
- Use a password as its more secure than a fingerprint lock.
- Delete and shift content to a cloud or leave device at home and use a temporary device.
- Make sure you do full-disk encryption and backup the data somewhere else
- If you decide to travel with your regular device, ensure all social media accounts, email accounts, or any other accounts with sensitive information are deleted from your phone.
- Memorize your attorney’s phone number, and make sure a family member has your complete itinerary, including flight numbers, and your attorney’s name and contact info.
A bill now in the Ohio House would repeal the right of discrimination and retaliation victims to file civil suit against supervisors who unlawfully harass, discriminate or retaliate against them. This will have an impact on victims of many types of discrimination, including Muslims who suffer from discrimination based on religion or national origin.
Tell your House Representative to VOTE NO on House Bill 2. It would repeal decades of Ohio law holding companies and their managers responsible for the costs of their unlawful discrimination and retaliation.
(WASHINGTON, D.C., 3/15/2017) – The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, tonight welcomed an order issued by a federal judge in Hawaii blocking President Trump’s new “Muslim Ban 2.0” executive order.
That presidential executive order, issued March 6, preserved major components of the original Muslim ban, including halting new visas and green cards for people from six majority-Muslim countries — Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen – stopping all refugees from entering the United States for 120 days and limiting total refugee admissions. The ban was set to go into effect just after midnight tonight.
Categories
Summary of Muslim Ban 2.0
PHASE IN PERIOD
– The Travel Ban 2.0 will not go into effect until March 16, 2017 and the older order, signed on January 27, 2017 has been replaced.
TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS
– Ban will not apply to lawful permanent residents and current visa holders. However, expect high scrutiny at the border when entering.
(COLUMBUS, OHIO, 3/10/17) – The Columbus Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Columbus) announced today the filing of two federal lawsuits for eleven Muslim plaintiffs with extreme immigration application delays.
The first lawsuit, filed against US Attorney General Jeff Sessions and various officials from DHS and USCIS, was filed on behalf of a Libyan national who is a U.S. green card holder with a citizenship application pending since 2014.
3/10/17 – CAIR-Columbus Executive Director, Jennifer Nimer, was appointed this week to the City of Columbus’ New American Advisory Council (“NAAC”).
The NAAC consists of representatives for various elected officials along with representatives of community organizations that represent refugees and immigrants. It was first convened last year by now-Commissioner Kevin Boyce to discuss ways that the city and state could help the newest Americans in our community to integrate into our broader society.
Since the presidential election, the NAAC has been meeting weekly in order to discuss issues affecting local new Americans and to discuss ways to promote the image of immigrants and refugees in Ohio. The Council is planning a large symposium in May that will be open to the public and will highlight the positive contributions of refugees and immigrants to our local Ohio communities.
COLUMBUS, Ohio — On Thursday, March 7th, a prominent group of interfaith clergy and community leaders gathered at Trinity Episcopal Church to condemn President Trump’s executive order banning the entry of immigrants and visitors from Muslim-majority countries, as well as refugees.
Clergy and community leaders called on President Trump to immediately repeal this executive order and protect religious freedom. Our nation was founded to be a beacon of hope and freedom for people fleeing violence and persecution.
CAIR National Offers $5000 Reward for Info
(COLUMBUS, OH 2/21/17) – The Ohio chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Ohio), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today expressed solidarity with and support for the Jewish community after a wave of bomb threats targeted community centers nationwide, including the Mandel JCC in Cleveland. In January, JCCs in Cincinnati and Columbus were also targeted.
Like you, we only recently received the final, signed copies of President Trump’s Executive Orders targeting Muslims and refugees. And like you, we are appalled at these attempts to erode our American values by targeting individuals based on race, religion, and national origin.
A complete analysis will take time, but we continue to hear from many of you, worried about what this means for your families and friends. Accordingly, we wanted to reach out and offer some preliminary guidance. We will send out more details as they become clear.