The argument for allowing secret evidence in deportation proceedings is that otherwise the identity or operational mode of a confidential informant might be jeopardized. First of all, the very purpose of the Sixth Amendment's confrontation clause is to prevent people's lives from being destroyed by secret accusations. Moreover, the argument against endangering the secrecy of confidential accusers in deportation cases proves too much. The very same argument applies in every other type of case in which informants are heavily used, including tax evasion, drug sales or possession, and gun laws. Some persons may accept the Star Chamber for legal resident aliens under the presumption that such procedures would never be used against American citizens.
Cancers always start small.
Everything that terrorists do is already illegal. Current laws already provide ample authority for investigations of potential terrorists, including persons who have done nothing more than talk big. The Oklahoma City and World Trade Center bombings were both solved under existing laws. While the 1995 terrorism bill, one of the most repressive measures ever enacted by the U.S. Congress, was promoted as a response to the Oklahoma City bombing, not a single item in the entire bill would have prevented that heinous crime or assisted in its solution. The tiny but sensational threat of terrorism should not be used as a pretext for stripping fundamental freedoms from the American people.