SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 10: The Justice Department has asked a federal appeals court for a broad ruling to authorize the use of secret evidence in cases in which it is trying to detain or deport immigrants it contends are in the country illegally, it was reported here on Monday. For national security reasons, the government argues that it should share secret evidence with only immigration judges and not with the immigrants and their lawyers, the daily Chronicle said.

Legal experts say that the request and other actions since Sept 11 attacks on New York and Washington DC indicate that the government is moving toward the renewed use of secret evidence in immigration cases, one of the most criticized of the Justice Department’s tactics in recent years.

In the 1990’s, immigrants’ groups and other critics of the secret evidence gained legal and political ground in their assertions that it relegates immigrants to a legal netherworld, having to disprove accusations like whether they have connections to terrorists without knowing specifically what the accusations are.

In a debate during presidential election last year, George Bush sided with the critics of secret evidence. “Arab-Americans are racially profiled on what’s called secret evidence,” Mr Bush said, adding that the government should “do something about that.”

Some immigration lawyers say they have already detected that they are arguing against evidence that they are not allowed to see, the Chronicle reported.