February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Indeed, it was foolish in its potential implications for other visitors from Northern Ireland and the Republic. If the likes of Devlin McAliskey pose a threat to the United States, this page could quickly run out of room naming others who would fall into the same category, some of them rather famous.
We live in dangerous times and the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service bears a heavy burden in its efforts to maintain secure borders. But those borders are less secure when time is wasted interrogating and denying entry to a woman whose political career includes the Freedom of the City honor from more than one U.S. city and former membership of a British parliament, which did not bar her from entering its inner precincts despite her avowed hostility to the British presence in Ireland.
The law can all too easily be abused and brought into disrepute, more so in nervous times such as these. But it’s the rule of reasonable law that distinguishes us from those we perceive as being a threat to our national security. The treatment of Devlin Mcaliskey at O’Hare Airport in Chicago speaks more to a sense of national insecurity than anything else. Devlin McAliskey should be allowed enter the U.S. She also deserves an apology from the State Department.