NEW YORK, Feb. 23 (UPI) -- The American Civil Liberties Union Friday presented a legal motion to ease U.S. entry for academics.
The ACLU said in a statement that it had "filed a new motion in federal court seeking to strike down a provision of the Patriot Act that allows the United States government to deny entry to foreign scholars because of their political views."
The ACLU claimed that the law, "known as the 'ideological exclusion' provision, violates the right of Americans to hear constitutionally protected speech."
The ACLU and the New York Civil Liberties Union field the lawsuit leading to the motion in January "on behalf of the American Academy of Religion, the American Association of University Professors and PEN American Center," the statement said.
"The Bush administration is using immigration law to stifle speech that is a legitimate and critically necessary part of political and academic debate," said Jameel Jaffer, deputy director of the ACLU's National Security Program and lead attorney in the case. "It is frankly absurd that foreign scholars are being barred from the country simply because they have criticized U.S. policies in Latin America or the Middle East or taken other political positions that the Bush administration disfavors."
The groups are also asking the court to end Washington's continued refusal to allow Swiss scholar Tariq Ramadan to return to the United States.
"Prof. Ramadan is a highly regarded scholarly voice on a wide range of issues on Islam and the place of Muslims in Western, democratic societies," said John R. Fitzmier, executive director of the American Academy of Religion. "Excluding scholars like him impoverishes American academic discussion of religion at a time when, given current world events, it is vital that the U.S. better understand the various forms, cultures and political outlooks in the Muslim world."
