A Manhattan federal judge Thursday backed the Bush administration’s decision to prevent a Muslim scholar from entering the country because he wrote $1,336 in checks to a Palestinian terror group.
Tariq Ramadan accepted a teaching position at the University of Notre Dame in 2004, when a State Department official in his native Switzerland red-flagged his visa application, citing a provision in the Patriot Act.
Ramadan claimed he did not know the Swiss group to which he donated supported Hamas - designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. Ramadan said he thought he was supporting Palestinian refugees.
Judge Paul Crotty refused to overturn the State Department action, saying Congress has decided that courts shouldn’t second-guess consular officials on immigration matters.
“Professor Ramadan has no standing - indeed, he has no rights whatsoever - to challenge the consular decision denying his visa,” Crotty wrote.
“It is well settled that the decision of a consular official to grant or deny a visa is nonreviewable by courts, absent a constitutional challenge by a United States citizen.”
