Enemy Aliens: Double Standards and Constitutional Freedoms in the War on Terrorism.(Book Review)

By David Cole, The New Press

As the quagmire in Iraq deepens, the debate over national security has focused almost exclusively on U.S. foreign policy. Overshadowed are domestic policies of the war on terrorism. Georgetown Law Professor, David Cole, cogently argues that we ignore the implications of such policies at our own peril.

The war on terrorism at home has been largely prosecuted against immigrants, using the immigration system, rather than criminal courts, as its primary weapon. Cole draws from both personal experience as a civil rights attorney and historical analysis to illustrate the concept that immigrants are like the miner's canary. The denial of constitutional protections to foreign nationals is a harbinger of the loss of rights and liberties for American citizens. Cole goes further to explain that when repressive policies infringe upon citizens' rights, "the political and legal processes react, and only then are they seen as mistakes." The overwhelming opposition to the USA-Patriot Act, which has ramifications for all American residents, juxtaposed with the relative silence about policies such as special registration or the roundup and questioning of thousands of Arab and Muslim men, illustrates this reality.

Enemy Aliens also debunks the notion that such policies improve real security for anyone. Cole explains that none of the thousands of immigrants who were detained after Sept. 11 have been connected to Sept. 11. Nevertheless, most were detained indefinitely, subject to secret proceedings, and deported, primarily for minor immigration violations. Such discriminatory roundups weaken the legitimacy of the American government, which undermines its ability to gather information and obtain cooperation to prevent future attacks. At the same time, U.S. military invasions of both Afghanistan and Iraq produced an unprecedented level of anti-American sentiment around the world; the targeting of Arab, Muslim, and Middle Eastern residents within the U.S. has only added fuel to this fire.

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