The Bush administration’s decision to begin detaining asylum seekers from Iraq and 33 other countries where Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups have operated met with harsh criticism today from civil liberties groups and immigration lawyers. The administration said the policy, announced on Monday as one of a number of counterterrorism measures imposed in anticipation of a war with Iraq, should affect fewer than 600 immigrants a year, most of them Iraqi. But civil liberties groups and immigration-law specialists said the wording of the administration’s announcement was so broad that it could ultimately require the imprisonment of thousands of asylum seekers, including Iraqis persecuted and even tortured by the government of Saddam Hussein. “This sends a message to people who are the victims of human rights abuses that we are going to put you into detention if you come from the very countries that the U.S. has identified — that President Bush has identified — as having torture chambers and committing egregious human rights abuses,” said Bill Frelick, director of the refugee program for Amnesty International USA. Full Story
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