The Spectrum, my university’s liberal student newspaper recently published an article on a group of liberal Muslim Americans who are accusing the US government of unfair treatment and discrimination. I decided to inject some mature thought into the debate and wrote a letter to the editor. This time around, my letter seemed to have been deemed to conservative by the paper’s liberal editors and was not published. So again, here is the letter in full:
Border detentions not necessarily unlawful
To the editor:
This letter is in response to articles on the allegedly unlawful detention of Muslim Americans at the Canadian border.
The US Customs & Border Protection agency states on its website that their officers “may question, (…) any person coming into the United States to determine his or her admissibility. In addition, an inspector has authority to search without warrant the person and effects of any person seeking admission (…)”
The interrogation of the group in question was therefore not illegal and their claim that they were merely exercising their free speech rights in Canada is irrelevant as the US Congress has no jurisdiction over Ontario.
One could argue that it was not necessary to hold them for six hours, but as the federal government is not obligated to disclose information regarding national security matters, the true reasons may never be known.
While the concept of selective interrogation may be difficult to grasp, it is important to understand that thus far, most enemy combatants and other kinds of terrorists have almost without fault had connections to middle eastern organizations or countries. It is therefore not unreasonable to cast a wide net when searching for terrorists.
It is also important to note that countries like Canada, with their oftentimes very liberal immigration and law enforcement policies, have often harbored terrorists and condoned assemblies of extremist groups. The fact that the Canadian government endorsed the Muslim conference therefore does not have to be taken at face value by the US government.
Lastly, working with groups like the ACLU may hurt the groups’ cause in the long run. Rather than taking an ultraliberal stance and fighting the executive and legislative branches of the federal government, they should get behind the government and support their efforts to bring freedom and liberty to the middle east. If, and only if, once that has been accomplished and the federal government still takes unlawful actions against Muslim Americans, decisive action will be justified.
