Anna Williams Shavers is a law professor at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. She specializes in immigration and gender issues. Afropop Worldwide asked her to write about how the coming changes in U.S. immigration law might affect foreign artists. Here's her synopsis of the situation.

As a result of the attacks of September 11th, we have observed changes in America that are likely to have significant impact on the Afropop community. These changes have occurred in the entertainment field and in the views toward America's immigration policies. In an effort to make Americans feel good and have a sense of security, we are questioning the entertainment that should be provided and who we should let into the country.

With respect to entertainment, there are delays and postponement of movies that are viewed as having possibly insensitive or offensive content, movie trailers are pulled from theaters and the internet, songs and entertainers with revolutionary messages are replaced with those having patriotic messages, performances are cancelled, and some performers are told that this is probably not the best time for them to come to America.

Surveys show that most Americans believe that the terrorists attacks were due in part to a failure to adequately protect our borders and scrutinize individuals that seek to enter the country. This belief as well as xenophobic fears have led to the renewed effort by some to enact more restrictive and perhaps irrational immigration measures as well as to apply current immigration laws in a more suppressive manner. Hopefully, this will not result in the creation of new obstacles for artists seeking to enter the U.S.

Our immigration laws are meant to serve a number of purposes. These include family unification, providing skills that are lacking or are in short supply, humanitarian relief such as the admission of refugees, and cultural exchanges. We should keep these purposes in mind as we are confronted with the new restrictive measures. There are also reports of a renewal of the effort for the U.S. to adopt a national identity card and of a plan for the United Kingdom to soon adopt a national identity card. These cards would include a microchip or some other feature that would make duplication unlikely. Foreign nationals would presumably be required to carry a card showing that they are properly registered with the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

In relation to the recent attacks, some see the cards as a way of forcing enemies of the State into registration and providing an easy way for the government to keep track of people. This is what provides the source of many reasons for criticizing the cards. The adoption of the cards could give the police and other officials very broad powers to check identity. While there are some valid reasons for adopting the cards, such as proving identity for travel and voting, some fear that national identity cards would either result in a constant checking of the entire population, or, the targeting of minority groups for discriminatory checking procedures by employers as well as law enforcement authorities. Although there already exists significant personal data about each of us through the internet and other sources, the cards could create a system where all of this personal data is kept in one central location. The ease of keeping track of people increases the loss of individual privacy.

As we learn more about the new law proposals, we should carefully scrutinize them and communicate our views to our representatives in Congress. Here are some websites that you might want to visit for more information:

Privacy International
http://www.privacyinternational.org/issues/idcard/

Electronic Privacy Information Center
http://www.epic.org/privacy/id_cards/

About.com Immigration Issues
http://immigration.about.com/mbody.htm

Contributed by Anna Williams Shavers