After the terrorist attack on September 11 , 2001 , the President George W. Bush 's administration passed sweeping , unprecedented legislation in response to the American public 's demand for action . After three days , Congress passed the law called the Authorization for the Use of Military force , giving President Bush the power to use the military in any way that seemed " appropriate or necessary towards unspecified states and non state actors . " Six weeks after 9/11 , the PATRIOT ACT was passed , greatly expanding several government agencies ' abilities to acquire information via searches , electronic surveillance , and wiretapping . This same act also introduced searches that did not require the government to notify the private owner of a residence that they had been searched for up to 90 days . Some scholars argue that the passage of laws like the Patriot Act was the government 's way of capitalizing on a fearful American public by legalizing racially targeted policies . A poll conducted shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks , echoes this line of argument when it found that about one - third of Americans thought it was acceptable to detain Arab Americans in camps reminiscent of the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II . Pew Research Center 's poll , conducted in 2004 , also found that almost of half Americans were willing to forego certain civil liberties in favor of ensuring national security
9/11 terrorist attacks
September 11 attacks
Islamophobia in the United States