Advocates Claim U.S. Bars Many Academics

August 4, 2006

Source: The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/03/AR2006080301460.html

On August 4, 2006 The Washington Post reported, "When Waskar Ari traveled to Bolivia last year, after completing a doctorate at Georgetown University, he meant to stay there for 10 days. The historian was due back last fall to start a professorship at the University of Nebraska. A year later, he is still waiting to return. Ari, an Aymara Indian, is one of a growing number of foreign scholars whose visas have been revoked or whose applications have been denied -- barred, according to civil rights and academic groups, for their ideological or political views. While the federal government denies this is happening, free-speech advocates and Ari's attorney say the practice is reaching near-epidemic proportions. 'We have a serious problem,' said Robert Kreiser of the American Association of University Professors, who has written to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice about the issue and says the problem is growing. 'This places a serious chill on the exercise of academic freedom.' The American Civil Liberties Union is tracking up to 15 cases, including Ari's, in which it thinks people have been banned for their beliefs. While ideology is rarely given as the official reason, the ACLU said academics increasingly are being interrogated about their political beliefs when they apply for visas... The government denies that charge. Jarrod Agen, a spokesman for the Department for Homeland Security, said: 'There are a host of reasons why an individual may be denied a visa, but their ideological or political beliefs are not reasons for denying entry.'"