ACLU Lawsuit Charges US Blocks Borders to Those With "Different" Ideology

This sadly is no surprise. We've again and again sent labor leaders and activists, professors, journalists and others packing before they can do more than get off a plane.

In a press release issued today, the American Civil Liberties Union charge the government with enforcing an "ideological exclusion" policy to block entry at the border, RAW STORY has found.

"The American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Civil Liberties Union today released new documents that indicate the government is broadly interpreting and using a controversial Patriot Act power known as the "ideological exclusion" provision to block people from entering the country," the press release reads.

"The ACLU is concerned that the provision is increasingly being used to target foreign scholars and others whose politics the government disfavors," the press release continues.

"The ACLU has filed a lawsuit challenging a provision of the Patriot Act that is being used to deny visas to foreign scholars whose political views the government disfavors," says ACLU's Website. "The lawsuit charges that the provision, known as the "ideological exclusion" provision, is being used to prevent United States citizens and residents from hearing speech that is protected by the First Amendment."

"The ACLU lawsuit was filed on behalf of the American Academy of Religion, the American Association of University Professors and PEN American Center, and also names as a plaintiff Professor Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss intellectual who is widely regarded as a leading scholar of the Muslim world," the website adds. "The government revoked Professor Ramadan's visa under the ideological exclusion provision in 2004, preventing him from assuming a tenured teaching position at the University of Notre Dame."