Correction appended

Civil rights for immigrants in Georgia is important in a post-Sept. 11 atmosphere, a speaker told the Muslim Law Students Association on Thursday as part of a new project.

“This project is aimed at immigrants who have had their civil liberties restricted by the government,” said Muneer Awad, a graduate student from Marietta. “It’s a way to protect them from what we see as erosive law against civil liberties.”

Azadeh Shahshahani, project director for National Security and Immigrant Rights at the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, spoke to about 50 students.

“In the years post 9/11, there’s been a shift in strategy,” she said. “Federal courts, especially the Supreme Court, aren’t always sympathetic to these issues because of fear of endangering national security.”

Shahshahani, the former interim legal director for the ACLU of Georgia, discussed challenges immigrants face in the state as well as in the nation, and how University students can help.

“The project is about empowering the community,” Shahshahani said in the lecture. “(The project) makes sure everyone on U.S. soil has human rights based on international human rights standards.”

She talked about anti-immigration legislation, detainee mistreatment and local police acting as immigration agents in Cobb, Hull and Whitfield counties.

The project involves campaigns, coalition building, legislative advocacy, reports on human rights, training attorneys and seminars to boost morale among immigrants, she said.

While working in North Carolina as an ACLU coordinator, “the biggest accomplishment was outreach to the community and establishing trust,” Shahshahani said.

The 2004 University of Michigan Law School graduate started the project the day after taking the Georgia Bar Exam. He was already a licensed attorney in North Carolina.

This month, Shahshahani visited Hutto Detention Center in Texas.

“The most egregious human rights violation is being in a detention center for a long period of time,” Shahshahani said. “Many (immigrants) come to America seeking asylum but then end up detained. There were even some children sleeping near toilets.”

CORRECTION:: Because of a reporter’s error, Friday’s story headlined “Project promotes rights” contained some inaccuracies. The detention center Azadeh N. Shahshahani referred to with children sleeping near toilets was the Hutto Detention Center in Texas, not the Stewart Detention Facility in Lumpkin, Georgia. Also, Shahshahani started the project after taking the Georgia Bar Exam, he was already a licensed attorney in North Carolina.