The 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act is being used by the Immigration and Naturalization Service to deny bond, asylum and other immigration relief to non-citizens based on evidence kept secret from them. Under these 1996 laws, any non-citizen alleged to be deportable may be detained without bond for years without even knowing why he is being detained. This is unfair.
Nobody can defend against secret allegations whispered by the unknown accuser.
No better instrument has been devised for arriving at the truth than to give a person in jeopardy of serious loss notice of the case against him and the opportunity to meet it. More recently, immigration judges have determined that the secret evidence being used is inherently unreliable. In In re Ahmed, the immigration judge said that most of the secret evidence being used to deny asylum and bond amounted to double or even triple hearsay, and may have originated with the foreign government accused of persecuting the non-citizen seeking asylum. Kiareldeen v. Reno . We urge you to co-sponsor and support the Secret Evidence Repeal Act.