A Charity Fund For September 11 Victims is Helping People Suspected of Being Connected with the Terrorist Attacks–Not Anymore!
Summary of eRumor:
It is alleged in this eRumor that eight people being held in connection with the terrorist attacks are being helped by a charity that is receiving funds for victims of the attacks. The name of the charity is the “September 11th Fund.” The fund is affiliated with United Way, said to have given a grant of $171,000 to the Legal Aid Society, which is assisting in the legal aid of suspects detained in Brooklyn, N.Y.
The Truth:
According to the Legal Aid Society in New York, none of the detainees being investigated for association with terrorists is any longer being helped by them.
The suspects in question had been not been charged with being terrorists, but had been detained for immigration violations as a part of continuing investigation into any potential ties. The Legal Aid Society says that their Immigration Unit helps people accused of immigration violations only, and not other crimes. According to their statement, the Society was asked by an Immigration judge to interview a number of people of Middle Eastern descent who had been charged with immigration violations. After the interviews, most of the cases were referred to the state bar. Three of the cases were accepted by the Immigration Unit for representation, but since that time, one of them has been settled and the other two turned out to have issues beyond immigration violations, and the society is not representing them.
An earlier 11/9/01 report from the Associated Press had said that a donation of $171,000 from United Way’s September 11 Fund was given to the Legal Aid Society.
At that time, officials from the Legal Aid Society said all of the funds were going to help victims of the terrorist attacks and none of them was being used for the immigration detainees. The National and Legal Policy Center, however, a legal group, said it did not believe that donors would want their money supporting a group that is helping anyone arrested in connection with the terrorist attacks.