AMENA CIVIL RIGHTS CENTER
The Amena Civil Rights Center is a Public Interest Law Firm serving Americans with origins from across South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa (“AMENA”). Our mission is to provide high quality legal and educational services to individuals and organizations in the AMENA community which are affordable and responsive to the challenges facing the community. On that platform, the Amena Civil Rights Center will develop and maintain the readiness to vigorously pursue constitutional and civil rights litigation in the public interest
…WE MAY HAVE ALL COME IN DIFFERENT SHIPS, BUT WE ARE IN THE SAME BOAT NOW.
– DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR
When the xenophobes and anti-Islamists managed to rise to power and the “Muslim Ban” targeted predominantly Muslim states in North Africa and Asia Minor, our AMENA community had limited resources at the ready to take on the fight. Established national organizations, like the ACLU and State Attorneys General, were fully funded and staffed, and our community organizations were relegated to spectators to the fight against these existential threats. We are grateful for the devotion to justice and the timely efforts of the ACLU and the Attorneys General in Washington and Hawaii. But we cannot attain and maintain the full enjoyment of our civil rights unless we can rely on ourselves. The current iteration of the bigoted assault on the AMENA community has only just begun, and we need to be better prepared and equipped for a sustained and capable struggle.
While the need is great and immediate, it is also true that the talent pool in the AMENA community has grown to an impressive level. There are thousands of well-trained and experienced attorneys and legal professionals in the Great Lakes States, and thousands more on the Coasts and around the country. The goal of the AMENA Civil Rights Center is to provide a full-spectrum non-profit platform for the AMENA legal community to rally to the struggle of the broader AMENA community.