Immigrants and terrorism.(Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service)

The following editorial appeared in the Chicago Tribune on Friday, 9-28:

X X X

As he readies a plan to fight terrorism, Attorney General John Ashcroft is proposing changes in immigration policy and due process that may be more dangerous to American traditions of individual freedoms than to terrorists.

Ashcroft has extended the period during which immigrants suspected of terrorist activities can be held without charges from 24 to 48 hours, with the prospect of indefinite detention in a period of national emergency. Ashcroft has floated other proposals to allow indefinite detention without charges of immigrants suspected of being associated with terrorists _ not necessarily engaged in terrorist activities _ as far back as 10 years ago.

Combined with stringent anti-terrorist and immigration reform measures, adopted in 1995 and 1996 _ which short-circuit most judicial review of decisions by the Immigration and Naturalization Service and even allow the use of secret evidence _ the recent proposals could push immigrants into a legal no-man's land. Conceivably the government could detain even legal immigrants, without formal charges or using secret evidence, and hold them indefinitely without any right of appeal or judicial review.

Members of both houses of Congress and both major parties have objected to such sweeping limitations on due process amid doubts about their constitutionality.

Indeed, in July the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that immigrants can't be jailed indefinitely and those facing penalties such as deportation have a right to a court hearing. Though the rulings involved different situations, they point to the fact that immigrants have constitutional rights too.