Team
Caroline Marks
Staff Attorney, National Security & Civil Rights
Caroline Marks
Staff Attorney, National Security & Civil Rights
Caroline Marks is a Staff Attorney in the National Security and Civil Rights program at Asian Law Caucus. Caroline’s work focuses on, among other things, state legislative and administrative advocacy challenging surveillance and counterterrorism programs and narratives that harm Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim and South Asian communities and other communities of color.
Before coming to ALC, Caroline worked on litigation and advocacy with the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at NYU Law, to hold the United States responsible for its extraordinary rendition program—whereby the U.S. kidnapped and transferred individuals to black sites and proxy governments for their subsequent torture and secret detention. Specifically, Caroline participated significantly in litigation before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in the case Mohamed et al. v. United States.
Caroline graduated from NYU School of Law and holds a BA in International Relations from Brown University. During her time at Brown, Caroline spent a semester Amman, Jordan learning the Levantine dialect and expanding her knowledge of modern standard Arabic.
Sanjana Potnis
Community Advocate, National Security & Civil Rights
Sanjana Potnis
Community Advocate, National Security & Civil Rights
Sanjana is a Community Advocate in the National Security and Civil Rights program at Asian Law Caucus. Prior to ALC, Sanjana worked as a community organizer in the Seattle area with college students, immigrant rights and racial justice organizations, and community members focusing on anti-imperialist, surveillance, and racial justice work through community teach-ins, coalition building, and advocacy.
Sanjana graduated from the University of Washington, Seattle, with a B.A in International Studies and Law, Societies, & Justice with a specialization in South Asia. As an undergraduate, she took an interest in studying criminal justice, researching post-colonial legal systems, migration patterns, and the politics of spiritual-artistic traditions in South Asia. In her free time she enjoys writing, photography, practicing Hindustani classical music, and reading film reviews on Letterboxd.
Our Focus
We strive to undo hate and violence against those impacted by unjust national security policies and build a more just and inclusive country where everyone can live safely and with dignity. After 9/11, U.S. politicians and agencies exploited public fears and created profiling, surveillance, and discriminatory immigration policies that targeted Muslims and people believed to be Muslim. Our communities continue to be affected by these programs, which criminalize people without any evidence of wrongdoing. With civil rights partners across the country, we stand up for communities’ constitutional freedoms and liberties, particularly Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian (AMEMSA) and immigrant communities who have been harmed by local, state, and federal national security policies rooted in white supremacy and racism.
- As a core member of the No Muslim Ban Ever coalition, we’re mobilizing to pass the NO BAN Act and prevent any future president from barring immigrants and refugees based on their religion or national origin.
- In California, we’re disentangling local law enforcement from the FBI’s surveillance programs and working to defund the state’s own programs including the Joint Terrorism Task Force that wrongly stereotype Muslim, Black, and other communities as inherently suspicious.
- At mosques across the Bay Area, we’re helping thousands of community members learn and defend their civil rights on free speech, immigration, travel, privacy, and safety—and providing free legal services to help families reunite, immigrate, and find refuge in the U.S.
