The accord was criticized by human rights organizations for granting blanket amnesty to Mr. Sankoh and others widely believed to be guilty of crimes against humanity.
Pearce is president of Ban Amnesty Now, an organization that advocates stricter immigration enforcement, which quickly decried Schumer's planned legislation after the hearing.
Under pressure from human rights organizations, the Salvadoran government granted amnesty to political prisoners.
At the end of the five-hour Amnesty Day, the education organization's herpetologist and general curator, Michael K. Ralbovsky, and his colleagues displayed some of the animals that had been collected.
Recently, the organization's creative arm, Art for Amnesty, hosted a weeklong series of events in Los Angeles designed to foster and promote arts activism.
Shortly before the primary, the Dewhurst campaign produced a radio advertisement that accused Mr. Cruz of helping to run two organizations "leading the push to give amnesty to illegal immigrants," though the president of one of them, the Hispanic Leadership Fund, says Mr. Cruz has never held any leadership role and that the group does not support amnesty.
Amnesty and the other organizations do significant work in the Muslim-majority world.
The group's president, Mario H. Lopez, said that Mr. Cruz had never held any leadership role in the organization, and that it did not support amnesty.
Amnesty is not the only organization to have been denied entry.
The organization scores candidates based on opposition to "amnesty," desire to "secure the borders" and plans to "reduce overall immigration," among other factors.
And I am under no obligation to join Amnesty; I may join other organizations to fulfill whatever duties of aid that I have.
