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News :: Miscellaneous |
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ACLU Calls Latest Immigrant Tracking Scheme Discriminatory and Ineffective |
Current rating: 0 |
by ACLU
(No verified email address) |
05 Jun 2002
Modified: 07:23:10 PM |
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"The Bush Administration is, step by step, isolating Muslim and Arab communities both in the eyes of the government and the American public," said Timothy Edgar, an ACLU Legislative Counsel. "This latest move needs to be seen in the larger context of all the actions targeted at people of Middle Eastern descent since September 11." |
WASHINGTON - June 5 - The American Civil Liberties Union today said that the latest Department of Justice plan to fingerprint and track immigrants and visitors to the United States is discriminatory and will inevitably be ineffective.
"The Bush Administration is, step by step, isolating Muslim and Arab communities both in the eyes of the government and the American public," said Timothy Edgar, an ACLU Legislative Counsel. "This latest move needs to be seen in the larger context of all the actions targeted at people of Middle Eastern descent since September 11."
The ACLU's comments come in response to reports today that Attorney General Ashcroft, with the support of the Administration, is planning to buck intense opposition from the State Department and announce a dramatic expansion in the tracking and registering of immigrants to the United States.
According to today's New York Times, the plan would require hundreds of thousands of lawful visitors - including those already in the country -- from a list of predominantly Muslim nations to provide fingerprints to authorities upon arrival and register with the Immigration and Naturalization Service after 30 days in the country. Visitors who fail to do either of these things face fines or even deportation.
The ACLU has long opposed immigrant registration laws, saying that they treat immigrant populations as a separate and quasi-criminal element of society and that they create an easy avenue for surveillance of those who may hold unpopular beliefs.
Also of concern is the improbability that the scheme will do anything to increase safety. Terrorists will simply find ways to circumvent the registration process either by simply not reporting to the INS or by entering the U.S. from a country outside the coverage of the tracking proposal, the ACLU said.
"It's pretty obvious that this plan won't work at anything except allowing the government to essentially 'pick on' people who haven't done anything wrong but happen to come from the Administration's idea of the wrong side of the global tracks," said Lucas Guttentag, Director of the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project.
"Selective enforcement of any law based on unchangeable characteristics like race, ethnicity or national origin is at its core un-American," he added.
The fingerprinting and tracking proposal is only the latest Bush Administration action targeted at Muslims and people of Middle Eastern descent since September 11. Other discriminatory measures have included round-ups, dragnet questioning, the detention of more than a thousand young men and the targeting of Middle Eastern communities for heightened enforcement of minor immigration law violations. |
See also:
http://www.aclu.org
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Three Courts Have Now Spoken |
by The Hartford (CT) Courant
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
05 Jun 2002
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Hartford Courant Editorial
June 3, 2002
Three separate courts have told the U.S. Justice Department that its secrecy policy regarding the arrest of 1,200 Muslim immigrants after Sept. 11 is illegal. Yet the department, in particular its Immigration and Naturalization Service, has failed to heed the message.
The latest decision came this week when Judge John W. Bissell of U.S. District Court in Newark, N.J., ruled that closing deportation hearings in every instance is unacceptable. He said hearings could be closed selectively if the government convinces a judge that an open session would compromise an investigation or endanger national security.
The Justice Department's response was to ask the federal appeals court in Philadelphia for an immediate stay of Judge Bissell's ruling.
History will not treat kindly this chapter in the federal government's response to Sept. 11. Deportation hearings, which until Sept. 11 were open, are now closed airtight for those arrested after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Even family members of the accused are barred from attending. Hearing dates and docket information are stamped secret. In most cases, the names of the accused and the reasons for their arrests have never been disclosed. Most of those arrested after Sept. 11 reportedly have been deported.
In addition to Judge Bissell's ruling, a federal judge in Detroit has invalidated the secret hearings held by the Immigration and Naturalization Service and a state judge in New Jersey has upheld a challenge to the government's refusal to identify the detainees. Those cases are before appeals courts.
How many more times will the Justice Department have to be told that blanket closings of deportation hearings and refusing to disclose names or charges and to admit even family members to hearings, constitute a violation of due process rights? The public's right to monitor the conduct of government officials is also abridged. |
