the Council on American Islamic relations filed a lawsuit today against the Biden Administration seeking an end to what's known as the federal Terror watch list the group known by its acronym care says the secret terrorist watch list almost exclusively targets Muslims the lawsuit includes a dozen plaintiffs all Muslim one of them the mayor of Prospect Park Mohamed Khairullah now mayor Khairullah says he was wrongly placed on the list and even after being removed was still night entrance to an Eid celebration at the White House in May Ted Goldberg has more on the lawsuit and the plaintiff's argument that being placed on this list leads to a lifetime of humiliation and branding as a second class citizen I was held in a plexiglass room where I'm by myself and my family is on the other side uh so how do you explained that to a four-year-old that you're a a suspect of something Mohammed Khairullah Said says he was detained at the Canadian border for 4 hours because he used to be on the FBI's watch list the mayor of Prospect Park says he has no clue how he ended up there just that he landed on it sometime after coming over to America 30 years ago my family fled Syria because my father and grandfather dared to speak against injustices and could have faced the same fate as those who have perished in Syria in the past 12 years Kira's family decided on America for largely the same reasons why most people come here at land no one for its institutions that are governed and guided by a constitution that guarantees everyone is treated equally and fairly but kyula says the FBI's watch list betrayed his constitutional rights and the Council on American Islamic relations agrees care began suing the FBI this morning in three states and Washington DC no matter how far you've come to proven your loyalty as a Muslim American those those same constitutional rights you've sworn to uphold do not apply to you by putting people on the watch list the FBI is telling every single police officer in the country every single private company uh that receives the watch list to screen people against the watch list whether they're pulling people over on the highway whether they're checking people at the border this list has caused a great deal of difficulty for so many it has uh trampled on the rights of so many Americans largely Muslim Americans and we're hoping that this shines a light uh on the illegal watch list and it brings an end to its use the list itself has more than a million names on it most people don't learn that they're on the list until they find out it costs them a job offer or leads to detainment while traveling car says you can tell how many Muslims are on the list because of the names and that as many as 98% of people on the watch list are Muslims the top 50 most common names all of them are Muslim names they are not only criminalizing specific people but they are burdening the very names of Islam itself they're very much part of the fabric of American society but at the end of the day they are still regarded in some ways as second class citizens and they're denied due process kyula says border employees told him his problem was solved but they didn't specifically say he was off the list if I don't do something now my children and their children will probably be second class citizens based on their ethnic and religious background I discovered that as a second class citizen I am not entitled to doe process my government can indeed accuse me harass me and tarnish my reputation without owing me an explanation or an apology he also blames the list for being Uninvited from the White House for an event back in May care chapters in Massachusetts and Michigan are also part of this lawsuit hoping to stop the FBI from using the watch list in the future in Newark I'm Ted Goldberg NJ Spotlight News [Music]