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ashcroft demands more powers
Civil Liberties in Jeopardy as John Ashcroft Demands More Powers
Despite a recent internal report criticizing the Justice Department’s handling of the mass round up of 762 immigrants after Sept. 11, Attorney General John Ashcroft is asking for further powers to prosecute and sentence to death alleged terrorists.
The New York Times reported that the Justice Department’s inspector general had charged that the department “made little attempt to distinguish” between who had possible ties to terrorism and those swept up by chance in the investigation during the mass round up.
The report covers only 762 out of the thousands of immigrants who were detained without being charged and denied receiving lawyers or any other due process. On June 6, The New York Times reported that 13,000 Arabs and Muslims faced deportation after voluntarily registering with immigration officials.
Reports of physical abuse by immigration officers against detained immigrants was also reported by recently released immigrants.
Ashcroft appeared before the House Judiciary Committee of June 5 and announced his intention to ask for further powers allowing the Justice Department to detain arbitrarily and with no evidence immigrants and citizens alike.
The Patriot Act II, a draft of which was leaked to the press in February, would give the U.S. government the power to engage in secret arrests, deport any foreign national with no evidence, and strip U.S. citizens of their citizenship and any associated citizenship rights if the person is found to be a supporter or member of a “terrorist organization.”
Of course, it is up to the government to decide which organizations are “terrorist” and what support means. Hypothetically, a U.S. citizen could give a financial donation (even unknowingly) to a charity deemed to be a front for a terrorist organization. That person could be expatriated and therefore detained secretly for an indefinite amount of time, denied a lawyer or any outside contact, and banished from the country, among other human rights violations.
Up until now, most of the 9-11 repression has been focused on immigrants. However, it is clear that the U.S. is preparing the legal basis for a broader attack on civil liberties that could involve mass round-ups of citizens and immigrants alike.
Attacks against immigrant rights have been quickly followed by attacks on citizen’s rights in other periods of U.S. history. The Palmer Raids of 1919-20, which targeted immigrants as being terrorists and “Reds,” set the stage for the prosecution of U.S. citizens under the Smith Act in the 1940s and the McCarthy era of the 1950s.
The stakes are high for the struggle to defend civil liberties and defend the rights of immigrants. If we fail to stand up now, it is very possible that history will repeat itself in the form of sweeping round-ups and prosecutions of any person the government considers a threat to its security.
The article above was written by Dave Bernt and first appeared in the June 2003 issue of Socialist Action newspaper.
