A prominent South African scholar who was refused entry into the United States last year received a letter from the U.S. government saying his visa was revoked because of his involvement in unspecified “terrorist activities.” The scholar, Adam Habib, a deputy vice chancellor of the University of Johannesburg, has strongly denied the charge.
In an October letter to Mr. Habib, the State Department cited a section of the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act that allows the exclusion of “any alien who has engaged in a terrorist activity,” who is likely to engage in such activities, or who belongs to a group that has endorsed such activities.
The State Department declined to comment on the case, but Steven Royster, a spokesman for consular affairs, said it was standard practice to provide written explanations for adverse visa decisions.
Mr. Habib is one of a number of foreign scholars whom the Bush administration has barred from entering the United States in recent years. Like many of the others, Mr. Habib had visited the country frequently before he was turned back. Like almost all the rest, he was not given an explanation until now.
Last October, Mr. Habib was deported from a New York airport after arriving to speak at a series of academic meetings. His visa was later revoked, even though he had lived in New York with his family for years while earning a Ph.D. in political science at the City University of New York.
In May he reapplied for a U.S. visa, but he received neither the document nor an explanation of why the process was languishing.
This past September, the ACLU filed a lawsuit on behalf of the organizations that had invited Mr. Habib to speak, including the American Sociological Association, the American Association of University Professors, and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. Melissa Goodman, a staff lawyer with the ACLU, said that Mr. Habib was being excluded not because of his actions but because of his political views.
“He is an extremely vocal critic of U.S. foreign policy,” Ms. Goodman said. “When the U.S. government makes outlandish accusations and doesn’t provide any evidence to support their claims, we are forced to make this inference.”
Ms. Goodman said the ACLU will renew its legal challenge demanding that the government justify its actions or grant Mr. Habib a visa.
Mr. Habib denied any connection with terrorism in a news release issued by the ACLU. “As someone who studies democracies around the world, it is deeply upsetting that the U.S. government refuses to allow me to cross its borders because of my political views,” he said. “While I have criticized U.S. foreign policy as a political commentator, it is utterly absurd that anyone would associate me with terrorism.”
http://chronicle.com Section: International Volume 54, Issue 14, Page A1
