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Pastimes : GET THE U.S. OUT of The U.N NOW! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tadsamillionaire who wrote (156)	6/10/2002 12:19:12 AM
From: calgal	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 411

UN, ACLU Denounce Ashcroft Immigration Security (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." E-mail a news tip to Jim Burns. Send a Letter to the Editor about this article. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stories from CNSNews.com are Copyright © 2000 by the Cybercast News Service. Copyright 1991-1999 townhall.com