even the very conservative

are slowly waking up to this; land of the FREE and home of the BRAVE? surely not so much any more

seems we are booting out some people who not only HELPED us, but FOUGHT WITH US in certain places.

Conservatives Decry Terror Laws' Impact on Refugees
Administration's Interpretation Means Many Asylum-Seekers Are Wrongly Considered Security Threats, Critics Say


By Darryl Fears Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, January 8, 2007; Page A03
Conservatives who supported President Bush's reelection have joined liberal groups in expressing outrage over his administration's broad use of anti-terrorism laws to reject asylum for thousands of people seeking refuge from religious, ethnic and political persecution.
The critics say the administration's interpretation of provisions mandating denial of asylum to individuals who give "material support" to terrorist groups is so broad that foreigners who fought alongside U.S. forces in wars such as Vietnam can be denied asylum on the grounds that they provided aid to terrorists.
Advocates for refugees add that people who were forced to aid terrorist fighters at gunpoint could be labeled as supporters and turned away; such cases include a nurse who was abducted and told to treat a guerrilla fighter in Colombia and a woman in Liberia who said her father was killed and she was raped and forced to stand by as rebels occupied her home for several days.
"This is so indefensible," said Michael Horowitz, a fellow at the conservative Hudson Institute and a former lawyer in the Reagan administration. "It is causing heroes who fought for the United States to be afraid of being deported."................

Tech Tags: anti-terrorism+laws george+bush immigration refugees asylum