LOS ANGELES, Nov 13: A federal programme to randomly check cars in search for terrorists and illegal immigrants is being introduced in Midwestern, home to the largest concentration of Arabs in America, Fox News reported on Tuesday.

US Border Patrol agents began snap checking of cars in Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Iowa and Indiana. They will ask for the citizenship of drivers and other relevant questions regarding their legal status in the United States.

“It’s all about homeland security. The bottom line is that we are here to be vigilant about the safety and security of the American people,” INS spokesman Greg Palmore told Fox News.

New York, Vermont and New Hampshire are among the northern border areas that already have similar programmes in place, said Mario Villarreal, a Border Patrol spokesman. Officials also set up a similar programme in northwest Washington state last weekend, he said.

The practice of check points is common in southern border states such as Texas and California.

Michigan is home to about 350,000 Arab-Americans, more on a percentage basis than any other state. The population is concentrated in southeastern Michigan.

“We believe it’s going to be very hard for them to do this without violating people’s civil rights, or profiling people based on their ethnicity or accent,” said Kary Moss, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Michigan.

Since Sept 11, more than 14,000 foreign visitors from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan and Syria have been fingerprinted at US border crossings and 179 have been arrested, Attorney General John Ashcroft said last week.