Posted on 06/07/2002 11:33:14 PM PDT by kattracks
(CNSNews.com) - A national security proposal by U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft is coming under fire from the United Nations and the American Civil Liberties Union.
U.N. Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson said Ashcroft's plan to collect photographs and fingerprints from foreigners entering the U.S. has "worrying aspects." Similarly, the liberal ACLU likened the proposal to "selective enforcement."
"It is grouping hundreds of thousands of people, the vast majority of whom are completely innocent, into particular approaches and strict controls on immigration," Robinson said during an interview on BBC's Today program Friday.
The ACLU argues that the new plan treats immigrants as a separate element of society and would result in surveillance of those who hold unpopular beliefs.
"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," Guttentag added.
Under the new rules, visitors would be checked against databases including fingerprints gleaned from raids on terrorist training camps. Anyone who showed up as a criminal or a threat could be barred from entering the U.S.
The Justice Department referred calls for comment to the Office of Homeland Security, which did not return calls seeking comment.
Ashcroft contends that terrorists and wanted criminals often attempt to enter America under assumed names and false passports, but fingerprints do not lie.
"By running the fingerprints of entering aliens against these prints, we will be able to stop terrorists from entering the country. In addition, we will run the fingerprints of incoming visitors against a database of wanted criminals," the attorney general said.
"And, we will be able to stop terrorists from entering the United States a second time under a different name using forged documents. We have the technological capacity to do this, and now we have a sizable database of fingerprints of known terrorists. We need to deploy this technology as soon as possible to protect American lives," said Ashcroft.
The Freedom Alliance, a conservative think tank, countered U.N. criticism of Ashcroft's plan by claiming Robinson's remarks show that the U.N. wants to dictate American policy. The group called on the Bush administration to stick to its guns.
Robinson is "notorious for criticizing the United States," according to Fred Gedrich, a senior policy analyst for the Freedom Alliance. "The U.N. is trying to influence and meddle in U.S. foreign policy and national security matters."
"The real issue here is that we are in a state of war," Gedrich said, adding that the U.N. is "way off base."
He defended the U.S. policy, saying that Ashcroft should implement the new entry control policy despite the U.N. criticism.
"We're a sovereign nation, and I put it in the category of what we are allowed to do under Article 51 of the UN Charter," Gedrich said. "And that is to defend ourselves."
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That way, she won't have to worry about what U.S. entry standards for aliens are.
On another note, Ashcroft must be doing everything right if both the UN and ACLU are upset.
P.S. You play a mean piano, too.
That way, she won't have to worry about what U.S. entry standards for aliens are.
LOL! Very true, and would that she would have to live in a third world paradise for a while. It might make her appreciate her own freedoms here a little more.
Unpopular like killing innocent people because they are Jewish or American? ACLU has to be next in the great plan of restructuring.
If they're innocent, then they have nothing to fear. The alternative is to just STAY HOME.
Our country. Our rules.
That might have inconveniently interfered with the media's re-writing of history though. By the time they're done, I've got a feeling Boy Clinton will go down as 'William Wallace' and his socialist wife as 'Joan of Ark'.
June 2nd or 3rd, 1984. The venue: Hilton Airport Inn ballroom in St.Louis. The occasion: kickoff campaign dinner for John Ashcroft for Governor. The band: Al Hirt on trumpet, John Ashcroft on piano and vocals, and...Stan Musial on harmonica and vocals (and he's basically G*d in St. Louis, and, don't know where he learned, but he plays a dynamite harmonica).
The audience: typical Pubbie campaign contributors, mostly oldish phartes (I was there because I had written a couple of childishly simple computer systems for them, and no, I did NOT pay the $400 drag).
This one-term ad hoc band was astonishing. Even the oldest of the phartes were up dancing and clapping and singing, and well after the time most of 'em should have been taking their Geritol, they asked for about 90 minutes of encores.
Unforgettable, and a LOT of fun.
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