The Impact of Section 702 on Asian Americans

Asian Americans Against Warrantless Surveillance is a coalition led by Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC, Asian American Scholar Forum, Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA), and Stop AAPI Hate. The coalition joins over 60 Asian American and allied organizations to call on Congress to oppose the reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) without comprehensive reforms.
 

We recognize the grave dangers posed by unchecked national security programs in the United States and the persistent legacy of discrimination that the Asian American and Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian (AMEMSA) communities have endured due to racial profiling and prejudice in the name of national security.

Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) was enacted by Congress in 2008. Its original purpose was to grant federal intelligence agencies the authority to collect communications from non-U.S. persons located outside the United States without obtaining a warrant. Unfortunately, over the past 20 years, Section 702 has undergone significant mission creep. As of 2024, intelligence officials are targeting approximately 290,000 non-U.S. people and groups for surveillance under Section 702. They collect any communications these individuals or groups send or receive, even when they are to or from Americans. The number of internet transactions collected is estimated to be close to one billion annually, with several billion sitting in storage. It has thus become a substantial source of warrantless access to the communications of American citizens, which raises serious concerns about government surveillance overreach.

Learn more about Section 702's impact by downloading the fact sheet below.