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Today's
Stories
March 6 / 7, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Understanding the World with
Paul Sweezy
March 5, 2004
Chris Floyd
Uncle
Sugar: How the WMD Scam Put Money in Bush Family Pockets
Ron Jacobs
Chaos
Reigns: Haiti and Iraq
Lisa Viscidi
Guatemalan
Refugees: a Difficult Return
Yves Engler
Canada and the Coup in Haiti
Mike Legro
Those Bush Ads: Some Dead Bodies Are Worth More Than Others
Javier Armas
A Night of Inspiration: Oakland Benefit for Grocery Workers Strike
Bennett Hoffman
"Who Cares About Haiti, Anyway?"
Bill Christison
Faltering Neo-Cons Still Dangerous
Website of the Day
Haiti Support Group
March 4, 2004
Diane Christian
Sex
and Ideals
Sen. Robert Byrd
Stop the Stonewalling, Mr. President: Fairy Tales, Bush and the
9/11 Commission
Norman Solomon
Assuming the Right to Intervene: The US Press and Haiti
Jack Brown
A Fragrant Saga of Mexico's Greens
Hal Cranmer
The
John Kerry Experience
David Lindorff
Greenspan's Pension
Sam Smith
The Election is Over, We Lost
Christopher Brauchli
Goin'
to the Chapel: The Gay and the Dead
Brian D. Barry
The "Perfect" World of E-Voting: A Computer Scientist
Reports from the Polling Booth
Richard Oxman
Arsonists for Haiti?
Peter Phillips
Haitian
Fantasies: Mainstream Media Fails Itself, Again
Tariq Ali
Notes on Anti-Semitism, Zionism and
Palestine
Website of the Day
What If Boeing Ads Told the Truth?
March 3, 2004
Heather Williams / Karl
Laraque
Marines
Retake Haiti
Jack McCarthy
Guy's
Our Guy: "I am the Chief. My Hero is Pinochet."
Robert Sandels
The
Purloined Label: The Struggle Over the Havana Club Trademark
Juliana Fredman / James Davis
Israeli Organized Crime
JG
The Yuppie Silence on Haiti
Emilio Sardi
The
Colombia/US Free Trade Deal: It's About More Than Trade
Alan Farago
Swimming in Sewage
Mike Whitney
"Blood
Will Have Blood": 143 Murdered in Liberated Iraq
CounterPunch Wire
Nader's Legislative Record in the 1960s
Steve Perry
Kerry
Advisory: Remember Lena Guerrero
Nelson George/ Marcus Miller
Miles Davis & Hip Hop: a Conversation
Website of the Day
$10,000 Is Yours for the Taking: The USS Liberty Challenge
March 2, 2004
William Blum
If Kerry's
the Answer, What's the Question?
Conn Hallinan
Haiti:
the Dangerous Muddle
JoAnn Wypijewski
The Bravo
H-Bomb Test: One WMD They Couldn't Hide
Mike Whitney
Regime Change in Haiti: the Bush Dominos Keep Falling
Ra Ravishankar
Afghanistan, the Liberation That Isn't: an Interview with Mariam
from RAWA
Dan Bacher
Merle Haggard & the Politics of Salmon: "Clearcutting
is Rape"
Greg Moses
Oscar White
Brandy Baker
Mel Gibson's Minstrelsy Show
Little Tucker Carlson
What I Did on My Vacation
Robert Fisk
All This
Talk of Civil War, Now This
Merle Haggard
Kern River
Website of the Day
Rebel Edit
March 1, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Morris
Thanks War Criminal in Front of Billions
Richard Oxman
Oscar's
Obit: Thanking Bob McNamara
Elaine Cassel
Writing and Reading as "Terrorism"
Mickey Z
Thomas Friedman's Education
Mike Whitney
George Will and Anti-Semitism: a Cul-de-Sac of Prejudice
Heather Williams
Haiti
as Target Practice: How the US Press Missed the Story
Cathy Crosson
Chanson d'amour haïtienne
Website of the Day
God Hates Shrimp
February 28 / 29, 2004
Stephen Green
Serving
Two Flags: Neo-Cons, Israel and the Bush Team
Gary Leupp
Another Senseless Bush Battle: Defining and Protecting Marriage
William A. Cook
Israel:
America's Albatross
Ron Jacobs
Kucinich: Good Fight; Wrong Battlefield
Ben Tripp
A Nosegay of Posies: Queer Weddings at Last!
Leilla Matsui
Dances with Crucifixes
Mike Whitney
Dismantle
the Military Goliath
Yoel Marcus
Down and Out in the Hague
Uri Avnery
The Dancing Bear
Linda S. Heard
Britons and Americans Condemned to a Hobson's Choice
Al Krebs
Unmasking a Secret American Empire: Land, Water & Cotton
Stan Cox
Life (Pat. Pend.): Genetic Commandeering
JG
The Haiti Boomerang: "After The Looting & Pillaging,
Your Hunger Will Remain"
Rick Giombetti
Censorship at the Seattle P-I on Forced Psychiatry
Keith Hoeller
The Bankruptcy of Mental Health Insurance Parity
Dave Zirin
Colorado Football: Buffalo Swill
NADERAMA
Alan Maass
Nader and the Politics of Lesser
Evils
Michael Donnelly
Regime
Rotation: Anybody But Bush...Again?
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Exeunt Serenaders; Enter Nader
Doug Giebel
So Nader's Running? Get Over It
Bruce Jackson
An Open Letter to Naderites
CounterPunch Wire
Stalinists for Kerry! and Other Roars from the Crowd
Poets' Basement
Davies, Scarr, Kearney & Albert
February 27, 2004
Thomas C. Mountain
A
White Jesus During Black History Month?
Laura Carlsen
Americans
Abroad: Bush is Persona Non Grata
John B. Anderson
Nader's Campaign Brings Back Memories: Creating an Open Electoral
Process
Jason Leopold
Spying
on Kofi Annan
John Chuckman
Nader,
Risk and Hope
Standard Schaefer
An
Interview with Michael Hudson on Putin's Russia
Ray McGovern
Punished
for Honest Intelligence
Saul Landau
The
Haiti Redux
Website of the Day
Bush: Why I'm Running for Re-election
February 26, 2004
Brandy Baker
Is Nader
on to Something?
Jacques Kinau
AEI
to Colombia: "Can't Give You Anything But Guns, Baby"
Norman Solomon
Bugging Kofi Annan: UN Spying
and the Evasions of US Journalism
Greg Weiher
A Purloined Letter: the Zarqawi Gambit
Walt Brasch
Janet Jackson, Bush & No. 542: There are No Halftime Shows
in War
Shadi Hamid
The Music World Explodes in Anger
Norman Madarasz
As Canadian as Corruption
Chris Floyd
Bullets and Ballots
Virginia Tilly
The
Deeper Meaning of the Wall
Amy Goodman / Jeremy
Scahill
Haiti's
Lawyer Says US is Arming Haiti's Anti-Aristide Paramilitaries
Website of the Day
Clear Channel Sucks
February 25, 2004
Dr. Susan Block
Saddam's
Sex Therapist and the Rape of Free Speech
Bruce Anderson
Treacherous Bastards: The Greens and the Dems and Nader
Ron Jacobs
Our Power is on the Streets and
in Our Hearts
Mike Whitney
Bush
and Gay America: the Politics of Duplicity
Sam Husseini
Jesus in 100 Words
John L. Hess
Kick Off or Flub?
Sam Hamod
Bush's Newest Red Herring
Cockburn / St. Clair
Winning
with Nader
Website of the Day
VotePact
February 24, 2004
Ralph Nader
Why
I'm Running for President
Greg Moses
Rally
the Mob! Bush, Gay Marriage and the Constitution
Douglas O'Hara
The
Merchants of Fear: Smearing Nader
Phillip Cryan
Frozen in Time: The WSJ's Paranoid
Lens on Latin America
David Lindorff
John Kerry's China Connection
Jason Leopold
Cheney's Shame: Halliburton Faces New Charges
Gary Younge
Haiti: Throttled by History
Kromm, Masri & Purohit
Why No Democracy in Iraq?
Steve Perry
Tangled Up in Red and Blue: Beware the Electoral College
February 23, 2004
Neve Gordon
Israel's Apartheid Wall on Trial
at The Hague
Kurt Nimmo
Richard Perle, Executioner: "Heads Should Roll"
Jonathan Franklin
US Soldier Seeks Refugee Status in Canada
Al Krebs
The Liberal "Intelligentsia" v. Nader
Josh Frank
Nader's Nadir? Not a Chance
Bruce Jackson
Nader, Another View: "He's as Evil as Bush"
Gary Leupp
A Misguided
Attack, The Passion, Rabbi Lerner and the Gospels
February 20 / 22, 2004
Cockburn / St. Clair
Kerry:
He's Peaking Already!
Derek Seidman
Chasing
Judith Miller from the Stage: Watch Her Run!
Ghada Karmi
Sharon is not the Problem
Vanessa Jones
This Week in Redfern, a Boy Dies, Chased by Cops
Ben Granby
Anatomy of a Night Raid on Balad, Iraq
John Holt
An Air That Kills: Greed, Apathy, Dead People
Saul Landau
Entry from a White House Diary
Tom Jackson
Why They Couldn't Wait to Invade Iraq
Frederick B. Hudson
Slave Power and the Constitution: Jefferson, Slaves, Haiti and
Hypocrisy
Roger Burbach
Argentina Fights Back
Kate Doyle
Lessons on Justice from Guatemala
Mike Whitney
Operation Enduring Misery: the Afghanistan Debacle
Greg Moses
What Gives Texas A&M the Right to Trample the Civil Rights
Act?
David Krieger
US Elections: an Opportunity to Debate Nuclear Weapons
Sam Bahour
Palestinian Issue Riddles Bush's Budget
David Grenier
You Could Get 10 Years in Prison Just for Reading This
Charles Sullivan
Corporatism vs. Single Party Politics
Poet's Basement
Hilda White, Larry Kearney & Stew Albert
Website of the Weekend
The Rumsfeld Fighting Technique
February 19, 2004
Cecilie Surasky
Anti-Semitism
at the World Social Forum? That's Not What I Saw
Ray McGovern
Iraq
Hawks and Deceptive Intelligence: Did They Really Think They'd
Get Away With It?
Tariq Ali
How Far
Will Bush Go in Iraq?
Ralph Nader
Whither
the Nation?
Wayne Madsen
Would Kerry Purge the Neo-Cons?
Norman Solomon
The Collapse of Dean's Cyber-Bubble
Christopher Brauchli
Cheney, Halliburton and the NYT
Mike Whitney
Bush's Iraq Strategy: "I Hope They Kill Each Other"
Lewis Carroll
Bush the Mighty Helmsman from Yale
Website of the Day
Sex Toy Horoscope
February 18, 2004
William Wilgus
Bush:
AWOL and Dereliction of Duty
William Blum
Mush-Minded
Liberals
Dave Lindorff
Bush's China Syndrome
Greg Weiher
Why
is Kerry Getting a Pass?
Mike Griffin
Killing the Messenger: the AFL-CIO's Attack on Harry Kelber
Mark Hand
Kerry Tells Peace Movement to "Move On"
February 17, 2004
Mike Ferner
The
Countryside Murders in Iraq
Mokhiber / Weissman
Corporation
as Psychopath
Marjorie Cohn
DrakeGate:
a Victory for Free Speech
Kurt Nimmo
Bush's
Endgame: a Review of Chalmers Johnson's "Sorrows of Empire"
Greg Bates
Nader Ambush: a New Low for The
Nation
Ximena Ortiz
A Bush
Doctrine, of Sorts
Gary Leupp
Whatever Happened to Gen. Khazraji?
Sen. John Kerry
"The Cause of Israel is the Cause of America"
Steve Perry
Kerry
1, Drudge 0
February 16, 2004
James Johnston
Huddling
with the Cheeseheads in a NASCAR World
Sara Eltantawi
To
Wear the Hijab or Not
Bruce Anderson
Kevin
Cooper and the Midnight Needle
Elaine Cassel
Feds
on Campus: the Drake Subpoenas
Rahul Mahajan
Bush,
Is the Tide Finally Turning?
Kevin Cooper
The Ritual of Death
Stan Cox
Goodbye, Howard Dean
Larry David
My War
Steve Perry
Bush and the Guard: the Cover-Up's the Thing
Website of the Day
Prison Patriots: Help This Vital Film Get Made
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click Here
for More Stories.
|
Weekend
Edtion
March 6 / 7, 2004
63,000 and Counting
Mass Deportations Mostly
Go Unnoticed
By TOM REEVES
Many people are talking about President Bush's
"guest worker" proposal for undocumented immigrants.
Right-wingers rebuke it as an 'amnesty.' Most immigration and
advocates view it as a way to flush out illegals, keeping them
at the mercy of greedy employers who can enforce silence about
abuses by threatening to fire them, thus subjecting them to immediate
expulsion.
Few people, beyond immigration lawyers,
have noticed a Bush initiative already in full swing--the detention
of more than 63,000 immigrants (as of late January, 2004) over
the past year, most legal residents. The Department of Homeland
Security says it has already deported as many as 70 per cent.
These are mostly men and women with green cards who have been
in this country from five to 50 years, and who were convicted
of a criminal offense, often decades ago. As Homeland Security
press releases point out, they served their sentences and "then
got lost somewhere in the justice system." Lawyers representing
some of them insist the number is higher. Leading immigration
lawyer, Richard Iandoli of Boston, estimates it at about 100,000.
This includes legal immigrants with minor technical violations
of immigration law--such as a failure to update addresses and
other required information within mandated deadlines.
Few articles have been written about
this mass expulsion. Most are about individual cases, and those
are often short, perfunctory and depend largely on government
sources for information. One of the few articles attempting a
more balanced view, focused on only one facet of the problem.
"Crime Database Misused, Suit Says," by Nina Bernstein,
New York Times, December 17, 2003) points out that the departments
of Homeland Security and Justice have been sued for adding immigration
and other civil information to the National Criminal Information
Center (NCIC) database, used by the FBI to notify state and local
police about those wanted for crimes. Until now, this database
was restricted to information about serious felonies. Since June,
2002, the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
has added more than 300,000 names of non citizens. (ICE is the
chilling acronym for the revised INS, folded into the Department
of Homeland Security, and given additional powers and scope,
ostensibly to deal with terrorism.)
There is no law requiring--or even allowing--state
and local police departments to routinely arrest people for such
violations. A bill introduced last summer to do this, the Criminal
Alien Removal Act (CLEAR), faced stiff opposition. Yet Attorney
General John Ashcroft announced last summer that local police
have 'inherent authority' to arrest and detain such people. The
legal basis for this has yet to be determined. Legal counsel
to President Bush have insisted that "only high-risk aliens
who fit a terrorist profile" would be placed in the database.
Since mid-2002, many otherwise legal
immigrants have been arrested through a routine database check
by local police. Of the 100,000 immigrants picked up last year,
more than 5,100 were arrested by state or local police and held
in local jails, with numbers increasing month by month. The rest
were apprehended by agents of the Office of Detention and Removal
within ICE, and held in eight ICE detention centers or seven
private detention centers contracted by ICE. Some of the detainees
entered the U.S. illegally and others over-stayed tourist or
student visas, but many were green-card holding permanent residents.
This appears to be the most massive deportation of legal resident
aliens since the post World War I 'red scare.'
Those arrested are held without bond
until a deportation hearing or until they waive their rights
to such a hearing. Some with serious offenses may be deported
without hearings. A Supreme Court ruling in April 2003 held such
treatment is justified in cases involving terrorism. The Justice
Department now assumes the power to hold without bond in all
immigration cases. In some cases, including those not remotely
related to terror, Homeland Security has intervened when a Federal
judge ordered the immigrants released on bail or personal recognizance.
Those immigrants who can garner public
support have sometimes been released pending hearings. On December
29, a Federal District Court judge in Oregon ordered four of
nine detained immigrants released. Two of these had been convicted
and served parole for offenses which a court had not deemed serious
enough for prison time. Willi Aigner, who has been a legal U.S.
resident since 1968, was found guilty of fondling a 17-year-old
boy in 1993, but--according to his attorney, David Shomloo, he
successfully completed sex offender treatment and persuaded the
sex offender registry that he should not be required to register.
(For this and other information on these cases, see the articles
by Ashbel S. Green in the Daily Oregonian, Portland, Dec. 27,
2003, and subsequently.
ICE spokeswoman for the Northwest, Virginia
Kile, expressed dismay that these defendants were ordered released.
"The immigration laws passed in the 1990s eliminated all
forms of legal relief for aggravated felonies," she noted.
"You're here as a guest, and you should be held to a high
standard in terms of your conduct." Until 1996, 'forgiveness
waivers' were granted many non-citizens who served time for many
crimes, including some major offenses. The 1996 Immigration Reform
Act defined these waivers narrowly, and few have been granted
since.
The 1996 immigration changes were draconian,
yet unevenly enforced until after the 9/11 catastrophe. Since
then, any immigrant with a conviction--and in some cases, merely
an indictment--is subject to deportation. In the past two years,
this has meant sudden arrest and detention without bond until
deported.
The 'crimes' all sound serious: 'aggravated
felonies' and 'crimes of moral turpitude,' yet aggravated felonies
range from murder to assault, theft or burglary, almost all drug
crimes (including many misdemeanors), and a range of other infractions
such as falsification of documents and forgery. Moral turpitude
includes not only child abuse and statutory rape (along with
actual rape), but also prostitution, domestic violence, willful
tax evasion, marriage fraud and all crimes against children--again
including many misdemeanors, as well as kidnapping one's own
children in a custody dispute. Also included as crimes of moral
turpitude are some rather dubious categories such as indecent
exposure and sodomy, no longer illegal after a recent U.S. Supreme
Court ruling.
One example of 'aggravated felony' is
cultivation of small quantities of marijuana. Marijuana activists
have documented many cases of immigrants facing deportation for
this. One is a Norwegian immigrant and mother of two young children,
Kari Rein--convicted in 1992 of growing six pot plants for personal
use. She received probation and community service at the time.
Yet last December 30, returning with her children from vacation
in Norway, she was detained for three weeks and released on bail
of $15,000. Homeland Security has appealed her release and still
seeks to deport her. The Oregonian newspaper has urged Oregon's
governor to pardon her. Her attorney, again David Shomloo, who
is himself an Iranian immigrant, commented, "It makes the
hair on my neck stand up because it reminds me of conditions
in Iran, a country we say is the Axis of Evil." (Oregonian,
Jan. 23, 2004). The Norwegian press has condemned the case as
evidence of U.S. hysteria in the wake of September 11. (Oslo
Forsiden Nyhyten, Feb. 23, 2004).
This past July, Homeland Security announced
a new initiative, Operation Predator, spearheaded by ICE. "Sexual
predators, especially those who prey on children, will have the
highest priority in terms of deportation." As of late February,
2004, Operation Predator claims to have detained nearly 2000
of these 'predators,' since last July alone (see the ICE website--http://www.ice.gov.
Operation Predator and Homeland Security
have widely publicized the sheer numbers of detentions--though
seldom revealthe names and details of the individuals arrested.
Officials seek to validate the link between snagging so-called
pedophiles and other sex offenders and anti-terrorism. John Walsh--host
of the Fox program, "America's Most Wanted," appeared
with Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge at a press conference
in July, 2003, announcing Operation Predator: "If you are
the parent of a murdered or missing child, if there's a predator
lurking in your area trying to grab kids in the vicinity of a
school, that's a terrorist....That kind of terrorist is at the
top of my list, a terrorist who preys on children."
All of this provides a sad deja vu. The
U.S. government has long used "predator" to stigmatize
other groups. Yale Law School Professor of Jurisprudence William
Eskridge traces its history in the second half of the 20th century,
during which conventional society, he says, sought to eliminate
homosexuality in the United States: "The concept of the
predatory homosexual crystallized as an idee fixeS," wrote
Eskridge. ("Privacy Jurisprudence and the Apartheid of the
Closet, 1946-1961", 24 Fla. St. U. L. Rev. 703 [1997].)
An intensification of this preoccupation occurred under FBI Director
J. Edgar Hoover. Mark McHarry, who has long studied the ongoing
world-wide sex panic, says Hoover added a lavender tinge to the
now-discredited government driven "red scare" of the
1950s. Writing for Z Magazine, McHarry said, "[T]oday the
government is branding others as predators, including young people
themselves."
The government sees its best-selling
initiative as protecting children, preying on people's fears
to push for greatly expanded powers to deport persons not accused
of child-related violations. "Homeland Security has been
able to coordinate fragmented resources to protect children from
these horrendous crimes in a way previously unheard of,"
says a statement from the Operation Predator homepage. OP Director,
Michael J. Garcia, details coordination not only with other government
agencies such as U.S. Postal Inspectors, FBI, CIA and Secret
Service, but with quasi-private groups like the National Center
for Missing and Exploited Children. They often coordinate "multi-level"
investigations with state and local police, using the NICC database.
The ICE mission statement says, "Children are one of the
most important and vulnerable assets of the American homeland.
ICE will do everything in its power to protect them."
Like the flashing electric boards above
many interstates, both ICE and OP home pages flash a tips hotline,
operating 24 hours a day, and urges citizens to "report
suspicious activity." In this case, it urges reports of
any "foreign nationals" suspected of immigration violations
or more serious crimes, especially against children. "Keep
your eyes peeled," is the watchword, "You may save
a child from death or worse."
One of the few major national articles
about Operation Predator, "Sex Criminals from Abroad Are
Arrested in Crackdown," by Susan Saulny, in the Oct. 30,
2003 New York Times, is entirely dependent for its information
on government spokespersons. She quotes them as saying 1,300
people had been arrested as of that date--yet nowhere is it clear
how many of these are legal aliens in the U.S., how many have
been caught in international cyber-crime investigations, and
how many were U.S. citizens indicted for acts abroad. Saulny
quotes an OP spokesperson in listing types of cases as including
sexual assaults on infants and violent rape, but also "sodomy
and public indecency." It is nowhere clear how many of the
1,300 (or nearly 2,000 by late February 2004) had committed crimes
against children--as opposed to other types of sex offenses.
A great many of the foreigners apprehended
had been living quiet, law-abiding lives for many years--and
in many cases their offenses from long ago were quite minor.
The Operation Predator spokesperson told Saulny of the Times,
"Most were arrested at their homes." Many of the 'sexual
predators' are far from fitting the image conjured up in most
people's minds by 'predator.'
Jeff Joseph is the Colorado chapter president
of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), who represents
a number of recently apprehended aliens, including sex offenders.
One of his clients is a Laotian immigrant living in Idaho. Joseph
told me recently, "He came with his entire family as refugees
in 1980, after his father was killed in Laos. He married here
and now has a son serving in Iraq." According to Joseph,
this Laotian pled guilty in 1990 to sex with a woman under 18.
"Both of them were in a Laotian rock band--he was 36, she
was 16. The Laotian told his wife about the relationship, and
when the girl's mother found out, she went to authorities. He
was given a 120-day sentence plus five year's probation. He complied
with all requirements of probation. He registered as a sex offender
when Idaho initiated its registry. He reconciled with his wife,
and has had a clean record since, gainfully employed and active
in a Buddhist temple. Suddenly he was picked up and threatened
with return to Laos--which he does not know at all, and where
he might be in grave danger." The Laotian was held without
bail until an immigration judge ordered his release pending a
hearing. Yet ICE intervened directly, as it claims it can in
cases related to homeland security, and blocked the man's release.
Finally, at a bail hearing this January, the immigration judge
granted the man one of the rare 'forgiveness waivers,' and ICE,
perhaps realizing this case represented an over-reach, did not
appeal the decision.
Joseph also spoke of a man arrested years
ago, while homeless in Chicago, for urinating within 100 yards
of a school, who had since turned his life around and had no
further arrests, yet who was detained by ICE and held without
bail.
Joseph noted, "In these cases, the
consequences are often more severe than mere imprisonment. People
are being separated from their families, their lives, and sent
off to places largely unknown to them, with no hope of ever returning."
President Palma Yanni, of the national AILA said in a press release
last fall, "America is a nation of immigrants, but our immigrant
communities now feel besieged as a result of the continuing assault
on their fundamental liberties." Joseph continued, "September
11 has now trickled down to our bedrooms. Terrorism has put such
a fear into us that our civil liberties seem to mean nothing.
There is an ever-expanding area of civil liberties infraction.
The proposed Patriot ACT II actually proposes that the U.S. do
something we have never even talked about in our history--revoke
citizenship in some cases."
David Shomloo, the attorney in the Oregon
cases, is quoted in the Oregonian, "(These arrests) do not
take into consideration any evidence of rehabilitation, history
of employment or treatment. There is no safeguard in this policy."
Joseph said, "If that's what we're fighting for in the war
on terror, we've already lost it."
It is difficult to oppose expelling child
molesters. Although many cases have been uncovered of gay men
who are being expelled for various sex offenses--usually sex
between young adults and adolescent males, but also for public
sex, and even the now legal act of sodomy--gay rights organizations
will not touch these issues. Victoria Nielson, a spokesperson
for the Lesbian and Gay Immigrant Rights Task Force told me,
"We would not get involved unless there is a specific complaint
from a gay man, and unless he was convicted solely of a sodomy
offense. Our position would be that detentions for people with
past records of sex offenses is not a gay issue."
In January 2004, the Supreme Court agreed
to decide whether authorities can indefinitely imprison hundreds
of Cuban immigrants among those detained--and others whose countries
refuse to accept them if deported. Homeland Security says there
are 2,200 such people currently in U.S. custody. Among these
are 920 Cubans who fled during the Mariel exodus when Castro's
'undesireables' (homosexuals, sex workers, and others deemed
social misfits) were expelled. Many of these men were subsequently
arrested for various offenses. Some Mariel Cubans have been held
for up to six years. (Baltimore Sun, Jan. 17, 2004). The Court
is considering how to deal with such cases, but is not likely
to rule on automatic detention and deportation for other immigrant
offenders.
For now it would seem that U.S. justice
simply does not apply to several hundred thousand men and women
who came to these shores legally, made mistakes, paid for them,
and assumed law-abiding lives for years, only to be taken from
their homes and jobs, imprisoned without bail, and detained or
deported. The old adage, "they've paid their debt to society,"
does not apply. Common practice in most democracies is to treat
such cases much more humanely. As in so many other instances,
the U.S. standard is far harsher and less tolerant.
The Patriot Act has provided the government
the power it needs to rid this country of a whole host of what
it considers 'undesireables,' including many who have lived here
decades, mostly without a problem. Since so little of this mass
deportation has been reported, few of our country's citizens
will have the information they need to decide if this is truly
in their interest.
Tom Reeves
is a retired Caribbean studies professor from Boston.
Weekend
Edition Features for February 28 / 29, 2004
Stephen Green
Serving
Two Flags: Neo-Cons, Israel and the Bush Team
Gary Leupp
Another Senseless Bush Battle: Defining and Protecting Marriage
William A. Cook
Israel:
America's Albatross
Ron Jacobs
Kucinich: Good Fight; Wrong Battlefield
Ben Tripp
A Nosegay of Posies: Queer Weddings at Last!
Leilla Matsui
Dances with Crucifixes
Mike Whitney
Dismantle
the Military Goliath
Yoel Marcus
Down and Out in the Hague
Uri Avnery
The Dancing Bear
Linda S. Heard
Britons and Americans Condemned to a Hobson's Choice
Al Krebs
Unmasking a Secret American Empire: Land, Water & Cotton
Stan Cox
Life (Pat. Pend.): Genetic Commandeering
JG
The Haiti Boomerang: "After The Looting & Pillaging,
Your Hunger Will Remain"
Rick Giombetti
Censorship at the Seattle P-I on Forced Psychiatry
Keith Hoeller
The Bankruptcy of Mental Health Insurance Parity
Dave Zirin
Colorado Football: Buffalo Swill
NADERAMA
Alan Maass
Nader and the Politics of Lesser
Evils
Michael Donnelly
Regime
Rotation: Anybody But Bush...Again?
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Exeunt Serenaders; Enter Nader
Doug Giebel
So Nader's Running? Get Over It
Bruce Jackson
An Open Letter to Naderites
CounterPunch Wire
Stalinists for Kerry! and Other Roars from the Crowd
Poets' Basement
Davies, Scarr, Kearney & Albert
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