November 28, 2023
Leading advocacy organizations issue joint letter calling on members of the U.S. House, Senate to reject reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)
NATIONWIDE — A national coalition of 92 civil rights and racial justice organizations today sent a letter urging members of Congress to oppose any efforts to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which continues to enable mass warrantless government surveillance of Americans. Led by Stop AAPI Hate, Color Of Change, Muslims for Just Futures, Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC, and United We Dream, and the ACLU, the coalition asserts that the measure must not be reauthorized without meaningful reforms to stop its abuse.
Section 702 grants intelligence agencies broad authority to collect the communications of foreigners abroad who use U.S. communications platforms. But as currently written and interpreted, it enables unfettered, warrantless, and discriminatory surveillance that encroaches on the privacy of everyday Americans in the U.S. and abroad.
“A growing number of Americans across the country – including Black, AAPI, Latinx, and AMEMSA communities – are joining together in a bipartisan effort to reject warrantless government surveillance allowed under Section 702, which disproportionately harms people of color in the U.S.,” said Cynthia Choi, Co-Founder of Stop AAPI Hate and Co-Executive Director of Chinese for Affirmative Action. “Our Congressional leaders have a duty to protect the American people’s privacy, and our message to them is clear: Without meaningful reforms, any reauthorization of Section 702 would be a blatant affront to our civil rights and liberties. No American should be subjected to the type of unjust discrimination, racial profiling, and warrantless government surveillance that this measure has enabled for over 15 years.”
Section 702 will expire at the end of the year, and congressional leaders have been reportedly planning ways to reauthorize — and even expand — the measure through potential legislation from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) and by including it in must-pass legislation such as the National Defense Authorization Act of 2024 (NDAA). And today, a group of Senate lawmakers introduced legislation to renew Section 702 until 2035 without adequate reforms.
“Reauthorizing Section 702 — without considering civil rights, privacy, and non-discrimination safeguards — will lead to racial profiling and allow the government to spy on the private communications of millions of Americans, including activists and elected officials. Color Of Change is happy to stand with this coalition in fighting warrantless surveillance which will certainly have a disproportionate impact on Black communities and other communities of color,” said Brandon Tucker, Senior Director of Policy and Federal Policy at Color Of Change.
“It would be deeply irresponsible for Congress to reauthorize Section 702 through the NDAA or any other must pass legislation. We rely on our lawmakers to stand up for our civil liberties and privacy protections, not hide the ball by trying to slip 702 reauthorization into the defense bill. Surveillance reform is deserving of comprehensive, robust, and informed standalone debate,” said Joanna YangQing Derman, Director of Anti-Racial Profiling, Civil Rights, and National Security at Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC.
In the letter to Congress, coalition members highlight known abuses of Section 702 that the federal government has admitted, including the unlawful warrantless surveillance of:
- 141 people protesting the murder of George Floyd
- Political activist groups, including tens of thousands of queries relating to civil unrest
- Professor Xiaoxing Xi, an American academic who was wrongly accused of unlawfully sharing sensitive technology with scientists in China.
- Two men based in part on a witness identifying them as being “of Middle Eastern descent”
- A state court judge who reported civil rights violations by a local police chief to the FBI
- A sitting member of Congress, a sitting Senator, a local political party, and 19,000 political donors
“Black, African, Muslim, Middle Eastern, Arab, and South Asian (“BAMEMSA”) communities continue to endure the repercussions of warrantless surveillance that dramatically expanded in the wake of 9/11,” said Darakshan Raja, Executive Director of Muslims for Just Futures. “We call on Congress to reject any reauthorization of Section 702 through the NDAA or any other “must pass” legislation, which would continue to harm BAMEMSA communities and beyond. It would also further erode trust in government transparency, accountability, and credibility.”
The letter builds on ongoing efforts by hundreds of advocacy organizations across the nation, including the bipartisan FISA Reform Coalition, to stop mass warrantless surveillance. Additionally, in September, 52 Asian American organizations united to call for comprehensive reforms to Section 702, and earlier this month, a coalition of 63 Asian American groups and allies called on Congress to reject the short-term extension or reauthorization of Section 702 without comprehensive reforms.