“The Fate of Freedom Here”

Abstract

Abstract In November 1979, shortly after the seizure of the American embassy in Tehran, the Jimmy Carter administration introduced Section 214.5 to Title 8 of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations (8 C.F.R. §214.5). It initiated the Iranian Control Program, which screened Iranian students in the United States and fanned the flames of anti-Iranianism. The domestic response to an international crisis endangered the basic human right to the security of person; civil liberties and the constitutional guarantee of equal protection before the law; and the rights of immigrants, refugees, and asylees. In response to this tripartite challenge, Iranian students and their American allies mobilized against Section 214.5. This article finds that the hostage crisis threatened the fate of freedom in the United States and, in the process, generated new forms of rights advocacy.