What is a good proposal argument for the Patriot Act? Are you for it or opposed?

Question

How can you tie it into Immigrants or Refugees? What are the complications or troubles of the Patriot Act?

Answer 1

The best answer I can give you is that the terms of the Patriot act are nothing new. In reality it extends powers into the fight against terrorists that are already possessed by the fed and routinely used to fight organized crime. Much of the hoo haw arises from the redirection of the expanded rights the feds possess regarding the interception of communications, such as the internet, from the fight against organized crime to the war on terror. Many restrictions and checks and balances that previously existed in this regard were left out of the Patriot Act in the name of national security.

The Act also lowers the standard for foreign intelligence surveillance for the same reason.

It gets complicated because of the nature of the likely targets of investigation. When one is dealing with organized crime, nobody much cares whether the feds are checking out their library cards or tapping their phones. But a terrorist can be anybody at all, in theory. Suddenly, powers that the fed had used for decades, with minor oversight, to investigate suspected criminals can be used with less oversight to investigate anybody suspected of any ties to terrorism. In theory, that could be any anti war activist on the block.

At least some opponents of the Act would have us believe so.

But, I think that buried in all that overblown paranoia, the opponents of the Act may have a small point. It comes down to whether or not one is willing to trust his own government in a crisis when that trust has been abused in a less worrysome past. Some people have made a rational decision not to trust and others are simply believers that their own government is a greater threat to them than any enemy could be.

As to immigration issues, the Patriot Act increased the authority of the INS or what is currently known as the USCIS to track down illegal immigrants with terrorist ties. For example, the USCIS has access to some of the FBI’s systems like the Wanted Persons File and the NCIC-III. These systems allow the USCIS to check the criminal history of visa applicants. The USCIS is also authorized to make inadmissible the spouse and children of illegal immigrants who have some ties to terrorism within the last five years. The spouses and children of individuals who have some association with a terrorist organization can be excluded from entering the country automatically.

The Patriot Act also gives the Attorney General authority to detain any non-citizen he certifies as a threat to national security. Originally, this authority was virtually unlimited, but safeguards were later introduced into the law and his decisions in this regard were made subject to judicial review. The primary objection being made to this at present is that it can theoretically result in the detention of non-citizens who have never been charged with a violent crime or national security offense but who have violated their immigration status in some way. Because the Attorney General has seven days under the statute to decide whether or not to charge them with a national security violation, it is possible that a mere status violator could be held until the statute runs out before he is handed over to USCIS for deportation.

Also, in some countries, governments compile lists of suspected "terrorists," a label they attach both to those who have committed acts of indiscriminate violence against innocent people but also to those who are non-violent critics or political opponents of the government. These lists are provided to our government and could theoretically result in an inappropriate detention until the time the government has to charge the detainee runs out.

I hope that this helps you.

Answer 2

The complication is it violates the US Constitution and is illegal!