Message: 5
Date: Mon, 01 Dec 2003 14:15:25 -0000
From: “Azamul Haque” [email protected]
Subject: US Muslims winning back rights
[PICTURE] Firdos Abdul-Munim attends a protest marking the
anniversary of the Immigration and Naturalization Service’s special
registration program on Monday, in New York City.
U.S. to revise visitor tracking
Muslims protested use of registration
By Dan Eggen
THE WASHINGTON POST
http://www.msnbc.com/news/996368.asp?0cv=Ë10
Nov. 21 — The Department of Homeland Security is preparing to
abandon a visitor-registration program that primarily affects Muslim
men and caused widespread confusion and protests earlier this year
after thousands of people who complied were arrested or ordered
deported, according to several government officials.
THE DECISION comes at the start of a second round of registration
for men from 25 predominantly Muslim nations. Immigration lawyers
and advocates have said the requirement to register again has been
poorly publicized by the government and will put tens of thousands
of visitors at risk for deportation proceedings. Critics also argue
that the system has alienated law-abiding visitors while doing
little to protect national security.
Government sources familiar with deliberations on the special
registration system said a decision to end the program is likely and
could be announced within days.
Homeland Security spokesman Bill Strassberger and other officials
said a new border-control effort set to begin Jan. 5, the U.S.
Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology program (U.S.
VISIT), will play a similar role in monitoring visitors. The program
will use photographs and fingerprints to log entries and exits at
major U.S. airports and seaports.
“We are continuing to evaluate the effectiveness of the special
registration program, to determine if it is meeting efficiency goals
and national security needs,” Strassberger said.
UNEXPECTED ARRESTS
The program prompted protests in Muslim communities across the
United States after it was implemented late last year, in part
because the early rounds of registration resulted in hundreds of
unexpected arrests. Many Muslims saw the effort as another attempt
to single them out and remove them as part of the government
crackdown that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
An unknown number of visitors refused to comply, risking arrest and
deportation if they are discovered. Still others returned to their
countries or sought asylum in Canada. The foreign minister of
Pakistan warned that the program could provoke a backlash that would
bolster the cause of Islamic extremists in that country.
`It looks like a trap. It’s a game of gotcha, a real bait-and-
switch.’
— CRYSTAL WILLIAMS
American Immigration Lawyers Association
Immigration officials said the government has an obligation to keep
track of visitors to the United States and a right to remove those
who have overstayed the terms of their visas or are otherwise out of
status.
Nearly 14,000 foreign nationals who showed up to be fingerprinted
and photographed for the registration were placed in deportation
proceedings. Authorities also have said the effort resulted in the
identification of dozens of criminals and seven people with possible
ties to terrorism. More than 83,000 visitors were registered.
In addition to criticism from immigration advocates and Muslim
groups, the program was the focus of debate within the Bush
administration. The approach was implemented by Attorney General
John D. Ashcroft and the Justice Department, which at the time
oversaw the immigration service and border police. Immigration
matters have since been transferred to the new Homeland Security
Department, where many officials view the special registration
program as ineffective and a waste of limited resources.
Immigration advocates said the registration program was poorly
conceived and never should have been implemented. "The real question
all along has been `What is the purpose of this system?’ " said
Crystal Williams, liaison director for the American Immigration
Lawyers Association. “There has never been a clear answer to that.
It looks like a trap. It’s a game of gotcha, a real bait-and-switch.”
SET UP TO FAIL' There is a complete failure to communicate information.’
— DAVID LEOPOLD
Immigration lawyer in Cleveland
A little-noticed part of the program requires that those who remain
in the country a year later register again within 10 days of the
anniversary of their first appointment. Immigration advocates said
that few visitors who registered during the first round are aware of
the requirement to register again, although Arab American groups
have begun to publicize it. Lawyers complain that many registrants
were not informed of the requirement when they first registered and
that the Homeland Security Department has made little effort to
publicize the rules since then.
“Most people, especially foreign visitors, don’t read the Federal
Register when they wake up in the morning,” said David Leopold, an
immigration lawyer in Cleveland. “People are being set up to fail.
There is a complete failure to communicate information.”
The American Civil Liberties Union complained in an Oct. 30 letter
to immigration officials that “we are not aware of any meaningful
efforts undertaken by the Department of Homeland Security to
publicize these impending deadlines or any of the other requirements
that may be applicable to persons who registered.”
Strassberger and other immigration officials dispute many of those
complaints, saying that all visitors received information when they
registered about the need to sign up again a year later.
Now, he said, officials are examining whether another round of
registration is necessary given the new measures about to be
implemented at airports and seaports. That effort will also
effectively replace a separate program that registered more than
90,000 immigrants over the past year at border checkpoints.
The program was set up with a series of rolling deadlines. The first
registrations began Nov. 15, 2002, for visitors from Iran, Iraq,
Libya, Sudan and Syria-countries that the State Department has
designated sponsors of terrorism. Authorities said they do not know
how many people from those countries have re-registered this year,
noting that they have until Nov. 25 to do so but that many have
probably left the country.
© 2003 The Washington Post Company