New York, NY —

Federal law enforcement agencies are attempting to change their image with immigrants who often distrust and fear them. Recently FBI and Immigration officials met with members of the Muslim Community in Midwood Brooklyn. WNYC's Cindy Rodriguez was there.

HOST: May I ask all the guests please take your seats so that we could start the program

REPORTER: It was standing room only inside the second floor ballroom of a local restaurant on Coney Island Avenue, a main thoroughfare in this neighborhood also known as Little Pakistan.

(HOST UNDERNEATH) Put some more seats out , you have more people over there…

REPORTER: Community activists say since September 11th of 2001, about 20-thousand South Asians have left this area either voluntarily or because they were deported. Four years later the community continues to feel targeted by the government. Criminal defense attorney Khurrum Wahid helped host the event. Seated at a long table that faced the crowd: he complimented the two officials next to him:

WAHID: I thank the guests who've come here from the government because quite frankly it takes quite a bit of courage to step in here and hear what they are going to here tonight.

REPORTER: It was not the first time that New York's counter terrorism chief Chuck Frahm attended a meeting with this community. Dressed in a dark suit and red tie, the moustached burly FBI Special Agent in Charge gave his opening remarks:

FRAHM: We have listened and heard some of the complaints and we have translated that into training for our people to be more sensitive on cultural issues.

REPORTER: Frahm said that agents now know better than to step on prayer rugs when they enter homes. He also promised that human rights come first and that violations would be corrected:

FRAHM: But I can also say I make no apology for the actions we must take to protect America and we will exchange those ideas and you will hear them from us tonight and maybe be able to answer some questions you have of why or how we do business the way we do. We must be able to obtain information to help protect you in this room.

REPORTER: Tariq Khouker , a man introduced as someone who helps organize the annual Pakistani parade forcefully expressed the most common complaint of the night - that profiling exists and people are arrested that shouldn't be:

KHOUKER: FBI don't do their homework ….many people are sitting here they won't stand up they got arrested …their wives, their children are crying … …..it's a shame and I'd like to request brother chuck ….we love Brooklyn and we want something done from you (applause)

FRAHM: How many in this room have been arrested by the FBI….(counts up to six)

REPORTER: Frahm offered personal treatment to several in the crowd throughout the night:

FRAHM: I'd like to speak to you afterwards and get to hear your experience….

REPORTER: And so the two government officials were told about getting stopped at airports and about having names mistakenly put on watch lists. Martin Ficke, Special Agent in Charge for Immigration, Customs and Enforcement would not comment on specific cases but said that complaints about profiling are not unique to the Muslim community:

FICKE: When we go out to and talk like I indicated to the Hispanic community, they also think that we are profiling we don't have the resources to do a lot of things that people believe we our doing. We are driven by certain criteria, certain issues. Criminal aliens are a big issue for us.

REPORTER: The crowd remained unconvinced by the government's assertions. One woman who identified herself as a civil rights attorney said that special registration, a program that required men from 20 Muslim countries to be fingerprinted, photographed and questioned at immigration centers was irrefutable proof of profiling:

ATTORNEY: 83-thousand Arab, Muslim and South Asian men were subjected to special registration, governments own statistics zero were charged with a terrorist related offense - that is racial profiling

REPORTER: Despite all the disagreement, both sides left with a sense of satisfaction. The government's main goal is to get people in the community to come forward if they have information about terrorism or other crimes. And for several in the crowd, the mere presence of two government officials listening was enough to call the meeting a success.