LOS ANGELES, Dec. 16 — Lines began forming before dawn today outside the downtown federal building here as hundreds of men from five Muslim countries showed up to register with immigration authorities under a sweeping national dragnet designed to identify potential terrorists.
Note:
“Today, the Justice Department added Armenia, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to the program, with a reporting deadline of Feb. 21.”
Again this applies to only non-citizens and those without immigrant visas. When the estimate is that there may be as many as a few thousand sleeper cells in USA, it seems like an excellent precaution.
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*Originally posted by OldLahori: *
Again this applies to only non-citizens and those without immigrant visas. When the estimate is that there may be as many as a few thousand sleeper cells in USA, it seems like an excellent precaution.
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There is a bit of irony because it applies to select countries and Pakistan is one of them, even though Bush calls it an "ally."
Any body going to J&K and Punjab from overseas Indians who are citizens of other countries had to register with the local disctrict authorities few years back. If I am not wrong one still needs to do it if you visit that place for more than 30 days. I remember one time in 80's my aunt with 3 small kids was stranded in New Dehli for 5 days because she could not get permission to enter Punjab.
In this case this registration applies only to non-immigrant visas visitors. What esle do we expect that we can come and go like mamoo jaan's home and no one will ask bhai kidhar se aye aur kiyoN aye? for God's sake American visitors to Pakistan are wearing bullet proof jackets and have to keep body guards to stay alive.
I have been reading up more on this and talking to people. INS could have done a much better job. INS is creating resentment merely because it is not explaining what it is doing and why. Some people who have expired visas, or whose circumstances have changed recently and do not fall into the proper visa category are being "handcuffed" and questioned. This is causing unnecessary anxiety and resentment. Pakistan gets dragged in for two reasons: 1) Pakistani passport is very cheap to acquire apparently resulting in the suspicion that there may be many Taliban Afghanis and Al-Qaida Arabs on pakistani passport , and 2) that there has been an increase in illegal immigration from pakistan in recent years.
There is little doubt that INS and FBI need to do hell of a better job than they are in contacting the communities here so they can get co-operation in the future. I could not even get through on the Phone to INS; not even to leave a message!!! The local FBI office was polite and forwarded my call to some PR person who was a good listener but the impression I got was that I might as well have been speaking to a wall.
The reaction of the few Pakistani-American Bussinessmen and Physicians I have contacted has been discouraging. They just don't want to be involved!!! Their attitude is that the nail that sticks out gets hammered, and they don't want to entangle with either the INS or the FBI. Any Pakistani-American : please contact who you think is appropriate and register that INS and FBI can do a better job. They need to maintain good relations with the communities here if they expect effective help from them in the future. I have no problem with the program that is underway, but I think the execution of it can be improved a lot. This program is only to register non-immigrants who came to USA before Sep. 2002. People coming in after that time are being registered when they arrive.