Dear John,
We are gaining momentum in the campaign to stop discriminatory bank account closures.
Today, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN) called on banks to halt discriminatory “de-risking” practices that have cut off Iranian Americans and other communities from their bank accounts. As Sen. Warren and Rep. Omar's letter states:
“The National Iranian American Council has documented many accounts of these practices, including an Iranian American who had an account “frozen that was to be used for a downpayment on a home, despite having sent documentation confirming their citizenship,” and students studying in U.S. universities who had their savings accounts closed without notice or lawful justification.”
This follows a report in Bloomberg [[link removed]] yesterday that we consulted on that outlines the pain of these discriminatory closures for ordinary Iranian Americans.
Next week, the U.S. District Court of Southern California will hold oral arguments in Nia v. Bank of America, a ground-breaking class action lawsuit over the bank’s de-risking policies that have discriminated against Iranian Americans. As Bank of America itself has indicated, the bank has frozen or restricted the accounts of more than 15,000 customers of Iranian heritage, a staggering number. We will be tracking that case closely.
Nobody should have their bank accounts closed because of their national heritage. That commitment to the civil rights of our community continues to guide our work as we push for solutions, both with policymakers and financial institutions.
We will not stop fighting for the community’s rights. We have fought major banks on this issue for years, from working with Venmo on Norooz purchases to working with Bank of Hawaii to restore bank accounts for Iranian students, to working with countless individuals whose accounts were wrongfully closed due to their Iranian heritage. But this work takes resources, so please make a donation today to support these efforts so that we can ensure the rights of our community are protected.
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Thank you
Jamal Abdi President, NIAC[[link removed]]
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