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No matter how much security is increased in the US, it is impossible to control and protect every corner, the country is simply too big. It is questionable if detaining every asylum seeker from a country linked to Al-Qaeda is helping in "weeding out" potential terrorists or "evildoers." It certainly makes the immigration process more complicated, more work-intense and probably more expensive. As has been the case so many times in the past, UN officials aren't happy with this new preventive policy. In a letter to American authorities, Ruud Lubbers, the United Nations' high commissioner for refugees, stated in a recent letter to American authorities that "The tendency to link asylum seekers and refugees to terrorism is a dangerous and erroneous one." This statement is in line with the United Nations' opinion that arbitrary detention of refugees is wrong. Call me naive, but I still believe that the majority of asylum seekers or immigrants in general, come to this country in order to create a better life by working hard and playing by the rules. Often times, it is these people who get caught in the net of bureaucracy, finding themselves detained and deported, as might be the case with an Iraqi woman who recently, on the eve of the war on Iraq, spoke on radio and TV about her experiences in Iraq under Saddam's regime. (See article) One week after meeting with President Bush, who used her as an example of how chemical weapons were used by Saddam against his people, the Iraqi woman gets a letter by the INS, telling her to report to a deportation officer. It goes to show how disconnected the agencies are among each other, and that bureaucracy rules over common sense. We can only hope that cases like this are the exception, but recalling news and reports from the past, I'm afraid it happens quite often.

While heightened security is a necessary measure that might make potential attackers think twice, it is also a psychological one that makes us feel safer. The downside to declaring certain groups of people dangerous, is the suspicions that are raised among citizens toward these immigrants, creating an atmosphere of fear or at least mistrust and uneasiness. This is part of a prediction that many Americans expressed after 9/11, that "Life in America will never be the same."

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