WASHINGTON, Dec 5: An important community advisory, prepared by the American Immigration Lawyers Association and the American Civil Liberties Union, warned Muslim immigrants on Friday that the special call-in registration has not ended yet.
The two organizations that are considered America’s most prestigious civil liberties and human rights groups informed immigrants from 25 mainly Muslim countries that the US government has only removed some requirements, not the entire registration system introduced last year.
The National Council of Pakistani Americans also has endorsed the advisory and appealed to Pakistani media outlets to “educate Pakistani citizens who are also required to register.”
According to the advisory, the only significant change in special registration that the Department of Homeland Security announced at the beginning of December, is that it is “suspending” the requirement of: (1) annual re-registration applicable to all registrants and (2) 30/40-day follow-up interviews applicable to port-of-entry registrants. All other requirements and the special registration programme itself are not changed and remain in effect.
“Anyone who does not comply with all the continuing requirements of special registration could be subjected to denial of admission to the US, denial of immigration benefits, possible criminal prosecution, and/or removal proceedings,” says the joint ACLU and AILA advisory.
The new rule applies only to registrants whose re-registration deadline or 30/40-day deadline is on or after Dec 2, 2003. Anyone who wilfully missed a deadline before that date is still considered to have violated special registration. All other requirements for Special Registrants remain in effect.
The following requirements have not been changed:
Departure Registration: Every person who was specially registered at either call-in or port of exit continues to be subject to departure registration.
Special registrants must (1) depart only from specially designated ports and (2) comply with special departure processing, which involves an appearance before a customs and border protection officer.
Turning in the I-94 or being processed by airline personnel does not satisfy this requirement. Processes for having this requirement waived were added by the interim rule, but the standards for the waivers are quite high.
Reporting: Reporting changes of address, employment, or educational institution is still required.
Persons who were or are registered and who remain in the United States for 30 days or more must notify Department of Homeland Security of any change of address/residence, employment, or educational institution within 10 days of the change.
The new rule provides that F, J or M non-immigrant visa holders entered into the SEVIS system, designed specially for these categories, no longer have to report the change to DHS if the change of address/residence or educational institution is reported through SEVIS system within 10 days of such change.
This exception does not apply to changes of employment. The new Federal Register announcement specifically states that the new rule does not excuse past failure to comply with the call-in deadlines or the 30-40 day follow-up interview or annual re-registration deadlines. In addition, the new rule does nothing for the thousands of people who were placed in removal proceedings when they appeared for call-in.
Port-of-Entry registration continues. Non-immigrants who are citizens or nationals of Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya and Sudan will be subject to special registration upon entry to the United States. Others can be designated for special registration on a case-by-case basis.
It is unclear when, if or how the upcoming US-VISIT programme will affect special registration and whether special registration will be subsumed into US-VISIT.
People who were registered under special registration continue to be governed by the special registration rules and must comply with those requirements.
The interim rule says that the DHS can require selected individuals to re-register at any time, with notice of only 10 days. The interim rule provides that notice of the re-registration requirement may be given by any means, including regular mail, e-mail or publication of a notice in the Federal Register. It is very important for anyone who has ever been registered under Special Registration to be vigilant and watch for information about such a requirement.
The interim rule also says that the DHS can announce another call-in registration at any time.