August 22, 2002	Thursday	Jamadi-us-Saani 12,1423

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LOS ANGELES, Aug 21: In an apparent move to control terrorism and curb illegal immigration, the United States has decided to empower the police to enforce immigration laws.

Though the Congress had passed the law in 1996 as part of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, specifically to curb illegal immigration on boats by Haitians and Cubans on the coast of Florida, it would formally become part of the American legal system on Friday, keeping in view the Sept 11 attacks and rumours of the US action against Iraq.

Immigration lawyers and Muslim organizations have signalled an alarm that the new law, on top of the already many Muslim-specific laws, would send a sense of terror.

Now every Muslim will feel terribly insecure driving a car or walking a street or even reporting a case of harassment to the police, Kamal Abu Shamshie, a senior official at the Muslim Public Affairs Council, told Dawn.

Just imagine that you have violated a little traffic law or met with an accident, and despite the fact that you have all insurance papers with yourself you find yourself landing in a jail or face deportation just because you did not keep your passport in your pocket at the time of occurrence, he said, adding this is sheer harassment.

The United States will become a police state, a senior official of the California-based Council on American Islamic Relations, said.

Early this month, the US Justice Department made it compulsory for all visa holders as well as permanent residents (green card holders) from 26 Muslim countries, including Pakistan, to report about their movements to the Immigration and Naturalization Service if they want to stay more than 10 days in any place other than their officially recorded place.

On the other hand, the Social Security office is minutely examining each and every case and had gushed out over 100,000 “mismatch” letters to companies, employing illegal immigrants. Eventually, they will all lose their jobs in coming weeks.

The law is also receiving a scathe from pro-immigration activists.

The finalizing of the new provision is simply a matter of coincidence, not a concerted effort by Attorney-General John Ashcroft to gain broader control in the immigration arena, says Angela Kelley of the National Immigration Forum.