There is a simple solution to this problem. It’s in the Constitution, actually. It is the Bill of Rights protection against “unreasonable searches and seizures (Fourth Amendment), and against arrest “without due process of law” (the Fifth Amendment), as well as the right to “a speedy and public trial” and to “assisstance of counsel” (The Sixth Amendment).
People really flipped out after 9-11, and many still think it’s okay to treat “furriners” differently than we treat our own citizens, but aside from the fact that the US Constitution doesn’t distinguish between citizen and tourist or illegal resident, the growing number of arrests, detentions and even deportations of American citizens by the INS shows what can happen when we start saying that some people don’t deserve the protections afforded by that document.
In the end, any one of us could end up in an INS hellhole with no access to a phone.
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DAVE LINDORFF is a Philadelphia-based journalist. His latest book is "The Case for Impeachment (St. Martin's Press, 2006). His work is available at www.thiscantbehappening.net
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