ACLU seeks records on denied entry

NEW YORK, March 16 (UPI) -- The American Civil Liberties Union filed an official request Wednesday in New York for records of people barred from the United States for political views.

The request was filed under the Freedom of Information Act.

"The government should not be barring scholars from the country simply because it disagrees with what they have to say," said ACLU staff attorney Jameel Jaffer. "Nor should immigration and State Department officials be in the business of determining which ideas Americans may hear and which they may not."

The FOIA request focuses on Section 411 of the Patriot Act, which permits the government to exclude foreign scholars from the country if in the government's view they have "used (their) position of prominence to endorse or espouse terrorist activity or to persuade others to support terrorist activity."

While the provision ostensibly targets those who sanction terrorism, news reports suggest the government is using the provision more broadly to deny admission to those whose political views it disfavors, the ACLU said.