On The Front Lines
Academic, Free Speech and Civil Rights Groups Call on Obama Administration to Stop Refusing Visas on the Basis of Political Views
NEW YORK--One week before a federal appeals court is to hear argument in a related case, dozens of the nation's leading academic, free speech and civil rights organizations sent a letter to high-level U.S. officials today urging them to end the practice of refusing visas to foreign scholars, writers, artists and activists on the basis of their political views and associations.
In the letter, groups including The Rutherford Institute, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the National Education Association call on Attorney General Eric Holder, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano to put an end to the Cold War-era practice of "ideological exclusion." The full text of the letter to Attorney General Holder and Secretaries Clinton and Napolitano is available here.
"While the government plainly has an interest in excluding foreign nationals who present a threat to national security, no legitimate interest is served by the exclusion of foreign nationals on ideological grounds," said John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. "At a time when academic and political debate is exceptionally important, I hope that the Obama administration will put an end to the practice."
During the Cold War, the U.S. used ideological exclusion to bar artists who were vocal critics of U.S. policy, including Colombian novelist Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez, Chilean poet Pablo Neruda and British novelist Doris Lessing. Over the last eight years, the Bush administration revived the practice, barring dozens of prominent intellectuals from assuming teaching posts at U.S. universities, fulfilling speaking engagements with U.S. audiences and attending academic conferences.
The letter calls on the government to revisit several specific cases of ideological exclusion, including those of Haluk Gerger, a Turkish journalist; Dora Maria Tellez, a Nicaraguan human rights activist; Adam Habib, a South African political commentator; and Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss scholar of Islam. Lawsuits have been filed by several U.S. organizations to challenge the exclusion of Professors Habib and Ramadan. The challenge to Professor Habib's exclusion is pending before a federal district court in Boston. The challenge to Professor Ramadan's exclusion is pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York. Oral arguments will be presented in Professor Ramadan's case on Tuesday, March 24.
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