Patriotic Or Unconstitutional? the Mandatory Detention of Aliens Under the USA Patriot Act‪.‬

INTRODUCTION The USA Patriot Act, enacted seven weeks after the September 11 attacks, granted the federal government sweeping new powers to expand surveillance, curtail financing, and deport aliens in connection with terrorist activity. (1) The first major piece of legislation to respond to apparent weaknesses in U.S. national security, the statute expanded the range of aliens who could be excluded or deported from the United States on terrorism-related grounds, while reducing the procedural protections available to them. Under the new law, immigrants "certified" as threats to national security must be held in government custody without bond pending deportation proceedings and removal from the country. Detention could become indefinite for those aliens found to be deportable but whom other countries decline to accept.