ACLU
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: [email protected]
NEW YORK — Citing a serious and growing threat to academic freedom, the American Civil Liberties Union today filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for records concerning the government’s practice of excluding scholars and other prominent individuals from the U.S. because of their political views.
“The government should not be barring scholars from the country simply because it disagrees with what they have to say,” said ACLU staff attorney Jameel Jaffer. “Nor should immigration and State Department officials be in the business of determining which ideas Americans may hear and which they may not.”
The FOIA request filed today focuses in particular on Section 411 of the Patriot Act, which permits the government to exclude foreign scholars from the country if in the government’s view they have “used [their] position of prominence to endorse or espouse terrorist activity or to persuade others to support terrorist activity.” While the provision ostensibly focuses on those who sanction terrorism, news reports suggest that the government is using the provision more broadly to deny admission to those whose political views it disfavors.
The ACLU’s FOIA request seeks records concerning the use of Section 411 as well as the names, nationalities and professions of those who have been excluded under the law. The request is directed at the Department of State, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice and the Central Intelligence Agency.
“Unfortunately, the public has very little information about how the Patriot Act is being used,” said Jaffer. “At a time when Congress is being ask to further expand the Patriot Act, the government should be more forthcoming about how it is using the powers it already has.”
In its FOIA request, the ACLU cited several recent cases in which respected scholars were barred from entering the U.S. Among them:
Tariq Ramadan, a widely respected Muslim scholar who was named a “spiritual leader” in Time Magazine’s Top 100 Innovators of the 21st Century series, was forced to resign his position at the University of Notre Dame after the government revoked his visa. News reports suggest that Prof. Ramadan was excluded under Section 411…
http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=17741&c=206
