ACLU seeks documents in denials of visas to foreign scholars
Sunday, March 20, 2005 at 01:00PM
TheSpook
The American Civil Liberties Union
asked the Bush administration on Wednesday to turn over documents
detailing the use of immigration laws to bar foreign scholars from the
United States because of their purported support of terrorism or on
other ideological grounds. Citing three prominent cases in the past
year, the ACLU said the administration appears to be denying visas to
Muslim and Hispanic academics because it disagrees with their political
views. The civil liberties group filed a Freedom of Information Act
request with several federal agencies seeking records about the
decisions to keep the scholars out of the country. The ACLU asked
whether the visa denials were based on a provision of the
anti-terrorism USA Patriot Act allowing the government to refuse visas
to people who use their "position of prominence to endorse or espouse
terrorist activity or to persuade others to support terrorist
activity." State Department officials declined to comment, consistent
with the department's policy on not discussing visa applications. A CIA
spokesperson said the agency responds to all freedom of information
requests. [more]
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