Earlier this week, the Bush administration said that immigrants arrested in the United States may be held indefinitely on suspicion of terrorism and not be allowed to challenge their imprisonment in civilian courts. The Justice Department said the new Military Commissions Act, being used to hold detainees in Guantanamo Bay, applies to foreigners captured and held in the US.

While studying in the United States, Ali Saleh Kahlah Al-Marri, a citizen of Qatar, was arrested in 2001. He was then labeled an “enemy combatant” which strips him of the legal right to challenge his detention in federal courts. “It’s pretty stunning that any alien living in the United States can be denied this right,” said Jonathan Hafetz, an attorney for Al-Marri. “It means any non-citizen, and there are millions of them, can be whisked off at night and be put in detention.” Previously, aliens had the right to contest their imprisonment, such as when they are arrested on immigration violations or for other crimes.

Al-Marri is being held at a military prison in South Carolina, a fact that his attorneys say affords him the same rights as anyone else being held in the US. He represents the first detainee inside the United States to be denied his rights under the new law, which is being used in the Guantanamo Bay cases. The law states that enemy combatants will be tried before military commissions, not a civilian judge or jury. It also establishes different standards of evidence in the cases, and prohibits detainees from challenging their detention in civilian court.

In a court filing in Washington on Monday, the Justice Department defended that law as constitutional and necessary. The Bush administration insists that al-Marri is an al-Qaeda sleeper agent, yet apparently isn’t confident enough in his guilt to afford him the right to deny such allegations.

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