[ACLU-NM] ACLU Hosts Citizens' Meeting on Patriot Act: Councilor Griego Featured Speaker

[Kimberly Lavender]

American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico

Media Relations Office

PO Box 80915

Albuquerque, NM 87198

Tel: 505-266-5915 

Fax: 505-266-5916

 
 
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 NEWS


 

ACLU Hosts Citizens' Meeting on Patriot Act: Councilor Griego Featured
Speaker

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Thursday, July 14, 2005


CONTACT: 



Kimberly Lavender, Communications Manager, ACLU of New Mexico at
505-266-4622

 

ALBUQUERQUE -  On Monday July 18th at 6:00pm the American Civil
Liberties Union of New Mexico (ACLU-NM) is hosting the second in a
series of "Reform the Patriot Act" town halls at the Peace and Justice
Center at 202 Harvard SE in Albuquerque.  Featured speakers include
Albuquerque City Councilor Eric Griego and Global Dialog Director
Valerie Gremillion.

 

The bill to be considered next week will make permanent the parts of the
Patriot Act that Congress initially intended to expire.  For example, it
would make permanent the most unwise and intrusive provisions of the
Patriot Act, such as those that give the government access to your
medical, library, financial and other personal records, without any
requirement that the federal government demonstrate that there are any
facts connecting records about you to a foreign terrorist

 

"Nearly 400 communities - including seven states - have passed
resolutions calling on Congress to amend the Patriot Act to restore
basic checks and balances," said ACLU of New Mexico Communications
Manager Kimberly Lavender.  "Here in New Mexico, thirteen communities,
the NM State House of Representatives, the NM Library Association, the
NM Municipal League and others, passed resolutions within months of the
Patriot Act's passage."  

 

ACLU members in New Mexico have been reaching out statewide to let their
neighbors know how the Patriot Act affects them.  The ACLU Central New
Mexico Chapter will be airing the movie "Unconstitutional" Thursday July
21 at the Erna Ferguson Library Community Room at 6:15 p.m.  The "Street
Patriots" have been handing our information weekly in Albuquerque around
town while wearing "sign" boards that display personal information, like
"I took Viagra this morning" and "I keep a handgun hidden in my home
office." Their message: the Patriot Act puts Americans' privacy at risk
by allowing law enforcement agencies access to medical, financial,
religious, and gun purchase records.

 

The 16 expiring provisions of the Patriot Act were not properly vetted
the first time, and included unwarranted expansions of federal power,
yet some in Congress are poised to make them permanent with no real
corrections. If they succeed, extreme provisions like Section 215 --
which gives the FBI broad access to your personal records without
individual suspicion, probable cause or any meaningful ability to
challenge the secret court order that allows this access -will forever
be a fixture of our laws.

 

The following can be attributed to Lisa Graves, ACLU Senior Counsel for
Legislative Strategy:

"Congress rightfully put sunsets on some provisions of the Patriot Act,
so that lawmakers could reexamine the extraordinary powers when cooler
heads would prevail. We cannot afford to sacrifice the very freedoms we
seek to protect. Although the House Judiciary Committee's base bill does
not expand the Patriot Act in the unwise and unwarranted way the Senate
Intelligence Committee proposed, it can and must be modified to ensure
that Patriot powers are focused on terrorists, and not ordinary
Americans whose civil liberties must be protected to preserve our
American values." For more on the ACLU's concerns with the Patriot Act,
go to: http://www.reformthepatriotact.org
<http://www.reformthepatriotact.org/> 

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go to our website at www.aclu-nm.org <http://www.aclu-nm.org/> 
 
 
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