On our ninth episode of Immigration Today! Angeline Chen interviews Mohammad Tajsar, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Southern California. Mohammad’s work focuses on national security and counterterrorism policy, with a particular focus on the impacts of U.S. national security law on Arab, Muslim, Middle Eastern, and South Asian communities. Mohammad also works on police misconduct, government surveillance, and protecting individuals’ and organizations’ rights in the digital world.
Mohammad describes where his passion for civil rights stem from and how being a Muslim and a father has affected his work. He goes into detail about his early career and how he landed at the ACLU. Mohammad’s current docket includes Fazaga v. FBI, a challenge to the FBI’s surveillance of mosques in Orange County, and Phillips v. Customs and Border Protection, a constitutional challenge to the surveillance and detention of immigrant rights lawyers and non-profit leaders. On this episode Mohammad discusses his position in protecting people's civil rights and freedoms through legal advocacy.
