NATION : U.S. List of Barred Foreigners Far Longer Than Thought Earlier
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NEW YORK — The government’s list of foreigners barred from the country for political reasons is far longer than previously thought, and most names were added during the Reagan Administration, documents show.
Details of the so-called “lookout book” emerged in documents released in response to a lawsuit brought by a prize-winning Colombian journalist who was turned back at a New York airport four years ago.
The list, previously estimated by immigration lawyers to have about 40,000 names, has 353,324 entries from 146 countries, territories and other areas. More than two-thirds of the entries appear to come after 1980.
Some of the names are entered more than once.
Famous people who have been barred include Nobel laureates Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Pablo Neruda; authors Graham Greene, Doris Lessing and Carlos Fuentes; French actor Yves Montand, and former Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith.
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