Right Working Group commends DHS’s announcement to rescind Fourteen Country Protocol

Washington D.C. -- April 2, 2010 -- Rights Working Group welcomes the announcement that TSA will be rescinding its directive instructing airports in 14 countries to subject everyone flying to the United States to secondary screening.  More importantly, it will also lift the requirement that passport holders from those 14 countries (13 of which were predominantly Muslim countries) get routed to secondary screening when flying to the United States from any third country.  The administration will instead move to a system based on behavior and specific intelligence about a threatened attack.

“By moving to a system that focuses on intelligence and behavior, rather than profiling people by national origin, U.S. aviation security policy has returned to best practices and common sense,” said Margaret Huang, Executive director of the Rights Working Group.  “Profiling people based on their race, religion, ethnicity or national origin has never been an effective tool of law enforcement, and it violates critical human rights protections.  By focusing on specific intelligence, the United States will be better able to focus its limited resources on potential threats, rather than subjecting large numbers of travelers to humiliating secondary searches based on their nationality.”

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For more information on the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) new security  protocols please got to http://www.tsa.gov/press/releases/2010/0402.shtm

Formed in the aftermath of 9/11, the Rights Working Group is a coalition of more than 250 community-based grassroots groups and national organizations working to restore civil liberties and human rights protections for all people living in the U.S.