By Patrick J. Buchanan – January 11, 2002

Is political correctness acquiring such a hold on the American mind as to constitute a threat to national survival? The question is not asked in jest. For consider, if you will, the latest charges of “racial profiling” laid at the doorstep of John Ashcroft.

At issue are the “absconders.” These are illegal aliens who, after being ordered deported for serious reasons, disappear into American society and hide. After Sept. 11, the nation awoke to learn that among the 8 million to 11 million illegal aliens here, some 300,000 were absconders who had ignored or defied their deportation orders.