Why are United States immigration laws in the news?
Civil libertarians have argued the new measures – part of the hastily-passed USA Patriot Act – are unnecessarily draconian. What is the USA Patriot Act? The act, signed into law by Mr Bush on October 25, is a massive piece of legislation covering everything from domestic security to surveillance procedures to money laundering. Immigration is only a small part of its measures, which are mostly focussed on collecting data about possible terrorist attacks. The point of all this is to both keep terrorists out the US and to detain those already in the country. As the attorney general, John Ashcroft, put it: “Let the terrorists among us be warned: If you overstay your visa – even by one day – we will arrest you. If you violate a local law, you will be put in jail and kept in custody as long as possible. We will use every available statute. We will seek every prosecutorial advantage.” What is the problem with that? The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) argues that the act gives “enormous,
