[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 19154]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           PATRIOT ACT ABUSES

  (Ms. LORETTA SANCHEZ of California asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. LORETTA SANCHEZ of California. Mr. Speaker, when the PATRIOT Act 
was enacted in the aftermath of September 11, civil rights advocates 
expressed great concern about the potential for abuse of the law by law 
enforcement officials. Unfortunately, many of their concerns were 
warranted.
  The Inspector General recently delivered findings of a new government 
investigation to Congress. In it he states that his office acted on 34 
credible PATRIOT Act violations in the first half of 2003 alone and 
that he received over 270 allegations of abuse.
  The complaints are diverse. They range from an officer holding a 
loaded gun to the head of a detainee, to a prison guard ordering a 
Muslim inmate to remove his shirt so that the guards could use it to 
shine his shoes. These incidents are intolerable and they demand 
further review, and I commend the Inspector General for bringing them 
to our attention.
  The PATRIOT Act was intended to enhance our homeland security, not to 
create an atmosphere of bigotry and abuse towards our immigrant 
communities.
  While the safety of our citizens is paramount, we must take caution 
to find a balance that preserves our civil liberties on which our great 
Nation was founded.

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