January 22, 2003	Wednesday	Ziqa’ad 18, 1423

WASHINGTON: Mohammed’s relatives filed somberly into his sister-in-law’s cramped living room, too distracted to pass around the Moroccan sweets they usually enjoy after family dinners. They had come to help the limousine driver make a grim choice: obey a government order requiring men from countries deemed terrorist havens to register with immigration authorities — and risk being swiftly deported for overstaying his tourist visa three years ago — or defy that command and potentially doom his pending effort to secure a green card.

Over the next five hours, family members took turns debating the options as Mohammed’s wife wiped away tears. Finally, about 2 a.m., with the sun just hours from rising on the deadline day for Moroccans, Mohammed, 38, announced his conclusion:

“I’m not going to register.”

Immigration lawyers estimate that hundreds of immigrants across the nation have reached the same decision, consigning themselves and their families to an uncertain fate and substantially undermining a national security programme whose aim is to account for tens of thousands of visitors in the United States from 25 nations, including much of the Middle East and South Asia.

“We’re hearing from dozens and dozens of members who say they have clients they could not persuade to go in,” said Crystal Williams of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “That makes us think the numbers (of no-shows) could be quite significant.”

Concerned by that possibility, the Immigration and Naturalization Service on Thursday announced that nationals of 18 countries — including Morocco — who had missed earlier deadlines would get a second chance to be photographed, fingerprinted and questioned between Jan 27 and Feb 7.

Immigration lawyers predict that the deadline extension will have only limited impact on those who so far have stayed away, as well as on immigrants from seven countries for whom the deadline has not yet passed.

Many entered the country illegally or overstayed their visas but then applied for permanent residency under a 2001 amnesty law. Because their applications have been delayed by massive INS and Department of Labour backlogs, such immigrants are now in legal limbo — on the verge of obtaining green cards, yet still subject to deportation until that day arrives.

Indeed, nearly 1,200 of those in this group who have shown up to register have been given notices to appear before a judge for a deportation hearing.

Fearful of suffering the same consequence immigrants with pending residency applications are increasingly choosing to stay home, lawyers said. Mohammed said he had even more cause for fear because he is one of hundreds of immigrants who were swindled in an infamous fraud scheme run by lawyer Samuel Kooritzky.

Kooritzky filed hundreds of fake residency applications under the 2001 amnesty law on behalf of his unwitting clients — who often paid thousands of dollars for the service.

Like other fraud victims, Mohammed hopes the INS will agree to waive the deadline and allow him to reapply. But the three lawyers he has consulted since Kooritzky was arrested have told him that could take months of negotiations.

Across the US lawyers are hearing of similar jitters.

Sohail Mohammed, a Clifton, N.J., lawyer, arranged to meet a Moroccan client at the INS office in Newark at 10:30 a.m. the day of the original deadline, only to receive an urgent page at 10:15.

“It was my secretary, telling me that the man had called to say he was just too scared,” Mohammed recalled.

Cynthia Rosenberg, a lawyer in Pikesville, has three clients who refused to register. Stanton Braverman, in Arlington, has five. “They have a serious interest in cooperating,” Braverman said. “I think the INS would get close to 98 percent compliance if it promised not to automatically put people with pending applications in deportation proceedings.”

Justice Department spokesman Jorge Martinez said the INS does not have that authority. “It’s up to the judge to decide the fate of each person on a case-by-case basis,” he said.

Martinez speculated that an immigrant’s willingness to register may earn favor with a judge. By contrast, he added, an immigrant’s failure to register could be grounds for denying his pending green card application and ultimately deporting him.

Still, without guarantees as to how judges will rule — and whether Congress would some day change the laws altogether — many lawyers said they have a hard time advising their clients as to the wisest course.—Dawn/LAT-WP News Service (c) The Washington Post