Durbin to Chair Hearing on Racial Profiling in America

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] - Assistant Majority Leader and Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights, Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today announced a hearing on racial profiling in America to be held on Tuesday, April 17, 2012 at 10:00am ET. The hearing will be held in room 226 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington.

The hearing - the first in the Senate since before 9/11 - will explore how profiling harms law enforcement and the different faces of racial profiling, including state immigration laws in Alabama and Arizona that subject Hispanic Americans to heightened scrutiny, discriminatory law enforcement against African Americans and anti-terrorism efforts that target American Muslims.

The hearing will also examine proposed solutions to racial profiling, including the End Racial Profiling Act, closing loopholes in the U.S. Department of Justice’s racial profiling guidance, and the Justice Department Civil Rights Division’s enforcement of federal civil rights laws to prevent profiling by state and local law enforcement agencies.

Witnesses will be announced at a later date.