Liberty in the Balance, Part III. In the shadow of the Ambassador Bridge, 24-year-old Sohail Rahim is waiting for a yellow Checker cab that will ferry him into Canada, where he hopes to start a new life.
Again.
Two years after he fled persecution in Pakistan and carved out a life of freedom in Dallas, he is fleeing the United States and the fear of the FBI coming for him. (link)
As counter-terrorism policy, this has failed, since there have been no terrorism suspects charged out of all the people who have been questioned, registered, or detained. As immigration policy, this is discriminatory, singling out certain immigrants because of their nationality, while leaving others of different nationality with the same violations alone. Something has got to change. [Al-Muhajabah’s Islamic Blogs]
This kind of thing isn’t really about terrorism or immigration, at least not directly. Politicians always respond to major events like 9/11 by rushing to “do something,” even though the things they do never would have had any effect, and in fact almost always make things worse for everyone. The “Patriot” Act and the creation of the Terrorist Safety Administration and the American KGB are other examples of this sort of thing.
Also, his kind of persecution of immigrants will probably make conservative immigrant-haters happy, and considering the close presidential election Bush may be looking for more votes next year.
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