Air the Dirty Laundry: Courthouse Rally

By Aundra M. Berry

The Racial Justice Campaign Against “Operation Meth Merchant” held a press rally today following the sentencing of three South Asian merchants in the US District Court. The mood was somber after the hearing, which left two families facing financial ruin with the imminent deportation of their primary wage-earners. The three men, ranging in age from 28 to 58, were each stoic as their interpreter translated their sentences after the ruling of Judge Harold L. Murphy. Each man received one year of probation with 120 days of home confinement (with credit for time served) and a fine of $100. The court was “impressed” by the show of support for the trio and Judge Murphy acknowledged a request from defense attorney Manubir Arora to allow the men to voluntarily leave the United States to avoid the bureaucratic red tape, expense and stigma of returning to their homelands under police escort. Each defendant was instructed through an interpreter that immigration laws were beyond their trial’s scope and outside the control of the judge.

Unfortunately for these men, their conviction of a felony crime in Federal court will force each to face mandatory deportation. And, in a curious break with tradition, officials from Immigration and Naturalization Services were invited by prosecutor Lisa Tarvin to take the stunned merchants into custody to await their return to their home countries at a detention center. Tarvin stressed throughout the proceedings that the immigration issues were merely a consequence of the criminal case against the men.

Supporters were subdued at the press rally that followed, but demanded that the prosecutors “air the dirty laundry” behind the racial targeting in Operation Meth Merchant. In front of onlookers, reporters from the Rome Tribune and independent camera crews, Racial Justice Campaign organizer Deepali Gokhale highlighted the group’s efforts to uncover the true reasons for targeting the South Asian community. Gokhale reminded the media that the merchants sentenced had been prosecuted for selling legal, everyday products. She went on to stress how these men, and others like them, continue to face severe fines, deportation, years of detention, crippling legal expenses and financial devastation. Yet, those convicted of actually selling the methamphetamine that so threaten the public welfare are being given reduced sentences. The Racial Justice Campaign calls for further investigation to assess the objectivity of the enforcement process used by Operation Meth Merchant.

Building an Effective Campaign for Justice: NCBI Atlanta Chapter Meeting

As part of the Racial Justice Campaign's continuing commitment to stop Operation Meth Merchant, Campaign Organizer Deepali Gokhale and Dan Horowitz de Garcia of Communities United for Action, Power and Justice, attended the Thursday, January 26th meeting of the National Coalition Building Institute's Atlanta chapter and its Agnes Scott College affiliate. NCBI exists to assist grassroots activist organizations by training leaders in the effective bridge-building that will allow them to eliminate intergroup conflicts.

Gokhale and Horowitz were invited to represent the campaign at Agnes Scott by NCBI Atlanta Caucus Leaders Joanne Demark (LGBTQ Constituency) and GeraldBody (Black/African Heritage and Men's Constituencies). De Garcia presented an overview of the prison industrial complex, while Gokhale recounted the atrocities of Operation Meth Merchant's targeting of South Asian convenience store owners in North Georgia and outlined the Racial Justice Campaign's efforts to fight back on behalf of the marginalized immigrants.

The meeting provided the nearly 30 listeners with valuable information on immigrant rights, internal barriers to activism, and the level of commitment required to take activism efforts to the next level. Those gathered were actively engaged in fruitful discourse on the issues of internalized oppression and the goals of activism. Attendees left the meeting with constructive tools to empower them to assist the South Asian families impacted by the racial profiling of law enforcement officials in the northwest corner of the state.

Community Forum on Criminal Justice and Immigration Systems

By Aundra M. Berry

On Wednesday, January 25, 2006, the Racial Justice Campaign hosted a community forum in Calhoun, Georgia. Representatives from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Immigration Defense Project and Families for Freedom met with translators, supporters and families affected by the racially targeted arrests and prosecutions for South Asian merchants in the wake of the US Drug Enforcement Agency’s Operation Meth Merchant efforts.

The goal of the forum was two-fold: 1) to explain the complexities of the US legal system and immigration system to South Asian immigrants, and 2) empowering South Asians to advocate for their own legal defense and immigration strategy in response to the devastating arrests of 49 merchants in the Rome area.

The Racial Justice Campaign seeks to empower South Asian immigrants to become advocates with their lawyers in the fight to stop Operation Meth Merchant. Members of the communities affected by OMM were able to find answers to their most urgent questions regarding the sentencing procedures in US District Court. Immigration attorneys also worked to counter misinformation given to defendants regarding the effect of criminal charges on their immigration status and/or deportation.

Martin Luther King Day March

By Aundra M. Berry

The Racial Justice Campaign Against Operation Meth Merchant (RJC) joined with Jobs with Justice for a march to build solidarity amongst communities of color.

The march took place on King Day, Monday, January 16, 2006 and began its route at Peachtree and Baker streets in downtown Atlanta. The event marked the RJC’s renewed commitment to education, empowerment and the continued building of harmony between the South Asian and African American communities.

Following the march, supporters interested in building a coordinated movement to address racial bias in the criminal justice system met at the Ghandi statue in front of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Non-Violent Social Change. The highlight of the rally was the supporters’ moving redition of “We Shall Overcome”, sung in Hindi.

Playwright Alka Roy of The Kaya Collective encouraged ordinary citizens to empower themselves for community change. Later, Badili Jones, from Jobs With Justice and Queer Progressive Agenda, spoke and stirred the crowd to thunderous applause. The crowd of nearly fifty supporters were encouraged and went back to their communities with new strategies and renewed commitment to fight for the changes necessary to spur progressive social action and advancement in South Asian communities.

These issues are of vital importance in light of the recent arrests of South Asian convenience store owners and clerks by authorities under Operation Meth Merchant. This sting operation has resulted in the arrests of 49 store clerks and merchants who were charged with knowingly selling the materials used to make methamphetamine. Although the items sold by the defendants are legal, 44 South Asian immigrants were targeted by confidential informants (who were themselves facing drug charges) as individuals who sold items such as charcoal, aluminum foil and Sudafed knowing that the ingredients would be used to make the highly addictive drug.

Despite the fact that the information gained from these confidential sources was often inaccurate or false, and despite the fact that there is an obvious language barrier, many South Asians have been arrested, jailed and face conviction on Federal drug charges. In addition, many of these immigrants will face mandatory deportation whether or not they are found guilty of any crime.

Stop the Profiling: Courthouse Rally

By Aundra M. Berry

The Racial Justice Campaign, opposing the prosecution targeting South Asians under the DEA’s Operation Meth Merchant, led a rally on the steps of the Federal Courthouse in Rome, Georgia on Tuesday.

Eighty-five South Asian immigrants, friends and supporters came to witness the sentencing of two defendants being charged as the result of a questionable sting operation claiming to seek apprehension of those aiding the distribution of methamphetamine in North Georgia.

The rally brought out press from WGCL, Atlanta’s CBS affiliate, and an Associated Press reporter from the Rome News-Tribune.

One defendant pled guilty, while the other pled not guilty to the charges. Legal strategists say that pleading guilty to the drug charges in such a flawed case as this one will have grave consequences for the immigration status of the defendants. If convicted, the defendants face mandatory deportation under US Immigration law.

Press Conference and Rally

On the afternoon of Sunday, January 8, over 300 community members gathered in Decatur, GA to protest the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency’s (DEA)’s “Operation Meth Merchant". Sunday’s press event and rally in the heart of the South Asian shopping area near Atlanta drew more than 300 community members and was an overwhelming success. The Racial Justice Campaign Against Operation Meth Merchant mobilized defendants, families, and community members for several months to speak out against the outrageous targeting of the South Asian community in Northwest Georgia. Speakers included Ajamu Baraka from the U.S. Human Rights Network, Lisa Wang, American Civil Liberties Union lawyer, McCracken Poston, a lawyer for several wrongly accused defendants, Upendra Patel, President of the Asian American Convenience Store Owners Association, Aparna Bhattacharyya, from Raksha, and Shareef Cousins, organizer with Fairness for Prisoners’ Families.

Rally participants protested with freedom songs and chants in Gujarati, Hindi, and English, making this rally a powerful community event. The message was loud and clear: Stop the racially targeted prosecutions and deal with the real issues behind drug use and sales.

Click here for more pictures of the rally.