WASHINGTON, Jan 12: From Monday till Feb 21, tens of thousands of Pakistanis will be queuing up outside the offices of the Immigration and Naturalization Service for special registration.
The INS expects 15,000 to 20,000 Pakistanis to come for the registration.
The Pakistan Embassy and Pakistani advocacy groups expect the number to be much higher. One estimate says that as many as 100,000 Pakistanis may be affected by this restriction.
In the first phase, which ended Dec 16, the INS registered visitors and temporary residents from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria and North Korea, the five countries considered sponsors of terrorism by the US State Department.
The second phase of registration completed Friday when people from 13 mainly Muslim countries were registered.
The INS says that during these two phases, it registered more than 15,000 people, overwhelmingly Muslims. Pakistan and Saudi Arabia were added to the list on Dec 16 and will be interviewed during the third phase, from Jan 13 to Feb 21.
The special registration includes fingerprinting and questioning of thousands of males from countries identified as terrorist harbours — and has caused widespread confusion and anxiety in Muslim immigrant communities across the US.
Lines at INS had grown so long this week that applicants at some locations arrived before 5am to avoid being turned away. INS officials have had to assign hundreds of employees and extra computers to handle the increased workload.
“We need to have a better understanding of who exits and enters our country, and these are people from countries that have been identified as possible national security concerns for the United States,” said Justice Department spokesman Jorge Martinez while defending the INS registration programme.
Those called for registration say that they are not against complying with America’s laws. “What we fear is that security concerns are being exploited to deport as many Muslims from American as possible,” says Ghulam Mohammed, a shopkeeper in Virginia who is also required to register.
On Oct 20 last year, soon after the Sept 11 terrorist attacks, the US Congress passed a bill titled the Uniting and Strengthening America by providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act, better known by its acronym, the USA Patriot Act of 2001.
The act mandated the Justice Department to develop an entry-exit system to control immigration. The new system was first implemented as a trial from Sept 11 to Sept 30, 2002 and became operative from Oct 1 last year.
Besides making new laws, US authorities also decided to increase vigilant enforcement of visa laws and arrest and deport visa overstays as well as deportation absconders.
They asked the INS to delay processing of work permits of aliens and introduced a new and stringent procedure for student visa. Students will also be observed after their entry into the United States to ensure that they follow immigration laws and do not work without authorization.
Most of these restrictions were already in place since World War II but were not always implemented.
Most controversial of these restrictions is the decision to fingerprint and photograph citizens of certain countries. Although officially, Pakistanis are required to register from Jan 13, their official registration had already started.
In late October, the Justice Department sent a secret memo to INS officials informing them that Pakistan had also been added to this list.
Since then Pakistanis aged between 16 and 45 are being registered at the port of entry.
This restriction has been criticized by human rights groups as one of the worst examples of racial profiling as it singles out Muslims, even those from the countries allied to the United States.
The fingerprints of these people are matched against a database of known criminals and terrorists. According to the Attorney General’s office during a pilot project earlier this year, fingerprinting led to an average of more than 70 hits a week, resulting in the arrest of 2,000 wanted felons from January through July 2002.
But none of them was involved in terrorist-related activities.
INS officials say that fingerprinting would also help them identify those illegal immigrants who obtain US nationality or green cards by changing their identities.
Under the new restrictions, a visitor who remains in the United States for more than 30 days must report to an INS office between 30 and 40 days.
If a visitor remains in the United States for one year or longer, he must report 10 days before or after the anniversary of his entry into the United States.
During the stay, if the visitor changes his address, employer or school after 30 or more days, he must notify the INS in writing within 10 days of the change.
A tourist would be asked for evidence substantiating his declared purpose of visit; hotel receipts, ticket stubs, or in case one has been staying with relatives, documents such as postmarked envelopes showing their addresses.
A visitor who is an employee would have to show payroll stubs, employment contracts.
A student would have to bring his class schedule, official notification of the grades and the student identification.
The INS officer could ask other relevant questions, and he could also ask the visitor to come with additional evidence after a period of seven days.
Such individuals would have to appear in person before an INS inspecting officer at a designated port of departure and leave from that port the same day.
Any designated person who fails to comply with these restrictions would be deemed to be out of status and subject to arrest, detention, fines and removal from the United States.
So far Pakistanis top the list of immigrants arrested and deported after the Sept 11 terrorist attacks. Pakistani rights groups say that many of them were “victims of ignorance,” who violated the laws because they were not aware of them.
