From Publishers Weekly
About 5,000 foreign nationals have been detained by the United States since September 11 and denied basic constitutional rights in the name of "wartime" expediency. Cole, who has litigated civil liberties cases on behalf of resident aliens and writes for the Nation, argues that denying foreigners rights within our legal system usually ends with citizens being stripped of those same rights. Cole (No Equal Justice) documents how this process has already started and discusses provisions of the Patriot Act that he believes will allow for even further government encroachment on our freedom. He also provides detailed historical examples of the government's record of persecuting opposition voices in the name of security against a foreign menace. He argues for the moral and pragmatic importance of avoiding a double standard and according foreigners the same rights as citizens. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
FindLaw.com, Elaine Cassel, 31 October 2003
A compassionate and compelling book about the US government's discrimination against aliens.
In These Times, Craig Aaron
One only hopes that Cole's superb book somehow finds its way into the Supreme Court's inner sanctum.
Los Angeles Times Book Review, John W. Dean, 21 September 2003
If there is a flaw in Cole's logic, it escapes me.
Legal Times, Seth Stern, 3 November 2003
Argues that what the government does to foreigners today paves the way for what happens to the rest of us tomorrow.
New York Review of Books, Anthony Lewis, 23 October 2003
The most convincing view that I have read of the legal/bureaucratic threats that now face immigrants and visitors to America.
New York Times Book Review, Ethan Bronner
Cole's indictment of the way we have handled foreign captives is accurate and sears the conscience.
Village Voice, Kareem Fahim, 12 September 2003
David Cole's lucid, reasoned writing is a forceful antidote to the current round of xenophobic zeal.
Book Description
As part of the war on terrorism, the federal government has detained over 5,000 foreign nationals, engaged in guilt by association and ethnic profiling, and conducted secret searches and wiretaps without probable cause of criminality. These measures have been sold to the American public on the grounds that they affect only foreign nationals. In Enemy Aliens, award-winning author and civil liberties lawyer David Cole argues that in balancing liberty and security we have consistently relied on a double standard, imposing measures on foreigners that we would not tolerate if applied more broadly to us all. Cole warns that while such a double standard is politically easy (the 20 million non-citizens living in the US can't vote), it is constitutionally suspect, counterproductive as a security measure, and ultimately illusory, because history shows that acceptance of such treatment for outsiders paves the way for similar measures against American citizens. Coming on the heels of his multi-award winning No Equal Justice, which exposed race- and class-based double standards in the criminal justice system, Enemy Aliens brings Cole's keen intelligence, constitutional acumen, and personal litigation experience to bear on the character of constitutional freedoms in the war of terrorism.
Book Info
Pocket-size text argues that in balancing liberty and security we have consistently relied on a double standard; imposing measures on foreigners that we would not tolerate if they were applied more broadly to us all. DLC: Aliens--United States.
About the Author
David Cole is a professor at Georgetown University Law Center and a volunteer staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights. He is also legal affairs correspondent for The Nation, a commentator on National Public Radio's All Things Considered, author of No Equal Justice, and co-author of Terrorism and the Constitution (both from The New Press). He was named one of the top forty-five public-sector lawyers under forty-five by The American Lawyer.
Enemy Aliens FROM THE PUBLISHER
In the war on terrorism, the federal government has detained over 5,000 foreign nationals, engaged in guilt by association and ethnic profiling, and conducted secret searches and wiretaps without probable cause of criminality. These measures have been sold to the public on the ground that they affect only foreign nationals, not American citizens. In Enemy Aliens, award-winning author, Georgetown law professor, and civil liberties lawyer David Cole argues that in balancing liberty and security we have consistently relied on a double standard, imposing measures on foreigners that we would not tolerate if they were applied more broadly to us all. Cole warns that while such a double standard is politically easy (the 20 million noncitizens living in the United States can't vote), it is constitutionally suspect, counterproductive as a security matter, and ultimately illusory, because history shows that acceptance of such treatment for outsiders paves the way for similar measures against American citizens. Coming on the heels of his multi-award-winning No Equal Justice, which exposed race- and class-based double standards in the criminal justice system, Enemy Aliens brings Cole's keen intelligence, constitutional acumen, and personal litigation experience to bear on the character of constitutional freedoms in the war on terrorism.
FROM THE CRITICS
Anthony Lewis - The New York Review of Books
The harsh treatment of aliens since September 11 has had little political attention.... In this powerful book, Enemy Aliens, David Cole shows why we should care... He lays out the Bush administration's policies in the way they can best be understood, in their impact on individual aliens. His tone is measured, his legal hand sure. He lets the facts speak, and the result is gripping. Cole gives the most convincing view that I have read of the legal and bureaucratic threats that now face immigrants and visitors to America. But then he goes on to make an even more important point. The repressive measures that President Bush and Attorney General Ashcroft first took against aliens are now being applied to citizens.
Publishers Weekly
About 5,000 foreign nationals have been detained by the United States since September 11 and denied basic constitutional rights in the name of "wartime" expediency. Cole, who has litigated civil liberties cases on behalf of resident aliens and writes for the Nation, argues that denying foreigners rights within our legal system usually ends with citizens being stripped of those same rights. Cole (No Equal Justice) documents how this process has already started and discusses provisions of the Patriot Act that he believes will allow for even further government encroachment on our freedom. He also provides detailed historical examples of the government's record of persecuting opposition voices in the name of security against a foreign menace. He argues for the moral and pragmatic importance of avoiding a double standard and according foreigners the same rights as citizens. (Sept. 26) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
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