While we commend the President on ending torture, we remain concerned that the prison on Guantanamo Bay remains open and that there has been little if any efforts to roll-back some of the Bush era’s civil rights excesses. We are particularly concerned over the executive power to kill U.S. citizens abroad who are deemed terrorists without judicial due process, the continued use of indefinite detention and the expansion of the surveillance state. We join the civil rights community in pressing the Administration to roll back these excesses and restore a proper balance between individual rights and national security.

We are also particularly concerned about the use of informants and unwarranted surveillance of Muslim communities in New York and other cities. Law enforcement is much better served when local Muslim communities work hand-in-hand with officers to keep their communities safe.