U.S. Will Seek to Fingerprint (Muslim and Middle Eastern) Visas' Holders

New York Times ^ | 6/05/02 | ERIC SCHMITT

[kattracks]

ASHINGTON, June 4 — The Justice Department will propose new regulations this week requiring tens of thousands of Muslim and Middle Eastern visa holders to register with the government and be fingerprinted, administration officials said today.

The initiative, the subject of intense debate within the administration, is designed for "individuals from countries who pose the highest risk to our security," including most visa holders from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and many other Muslim nations, officials said. More than 100,000 foreigners, including students, workers, researchers and tourists, all foreigners from designated countries who do not hold green cards, would probably be covered by the plan, an official said.

Antiterrorism teams made up of federal, state and local officers that have been formed in most larger cities since the Sept. 11 attacks would help immigration officials register visa holders already living here, using procedures similar to those employed to find 5,000 mainly Middle Eastern men who were sought for interviews after the attacks.

New arrivals from the designated countries would be fingerprinted at airports or seaports and be required to register with the Immigration and Naturalization Service after 30 days in the country, officials said.

Violators could be fined, refused re-entry into the United States or possibly deported, officials said.

The plan will be published in the Federal Register. After a comment period, it will become a Justice Department regulation.

The proposal ignited a raging debate in the Bush administration. White House officials supported the Justice proposal, but the State Department lodged objections, fearing diplomatic repercussions with allies in the war on terror, administration officials said.

A Justice Department spokeswoman, Susan Dryden, declined to comment on the proposal.

Immigration specialists, meantime, are warning of new backlogs at airports if already understaffed immigration service inspectors are required to fingerprint and process a new category of visitors.

But some civil liberties and Arab-American groups expressed outrage at the proposed requirements, arguing that such a policy was a blatant example of racial and ethnic profiling.

"What's the logic of this?" said Jeanne Butterfield, executive director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. "Anyone who's truly dangerous is not going to show up to be registered."

James J. Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, a policy organization, said the registration plan would be "an overtly discriminatory, inefficient and ineffective way to deal with the problem."

"This is targeting a group of people, the overwhelming majority of whom are innocent, but whose lives will be turned upside down," Mr. Zogby added. "The message it sends is that we're becoming like the Soviet Union, with people registering at police stations."

The authority for proposing the new registration requirements rests in a long-dormant provision in the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, administration officials said.

A section of that law requires all foreign visa holders to register with the government if they remain in the United States for 30 days or longer. The law also required the fingerprinting of virtually all foreigners who were not permanent residents, except for diplomats.

The law remained on the books, but enforcement fell off in the early 1980's when the volume of visa holders climbed rapidly and the immigration service's budget and staffing dropped.

"By the early 1980's, the sheer volume of the effort combined with a lack of funding resulted in the practice being discontinued," said one administration official.

In 1979, the same year as the beginning of the Iranian hostage crisis, Iranian students were required to register with the government. After the attacks last year, most visa holders from Iran, Iraq, Sudan and Libya were fingerprinted as they entered the United States.

But the terrorist attacks had given fresh impetus to a much broader program. One administration official said the new registration proposal, which Justice officials planned to brief to Congress on Wednesday and announce later this week, would give the government a leg up on identifying the highest-risk foreign visitors now living in the United States.

Congress has required that the Immigration and Naturalization Service establish a system to monitor the entry and departure of all immigrants, beginning in 2003.

But other officials said the contentious proposal broke free from an internal administration debate only amid the recent recriminations over what intelligence the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Central Intelligence Agency and other federal agencies possessed before Sept. 11 about the possibilities of a terrorist attack.

One of the leaders of the interagency discussion on the alien registration proposal is a conservative University of Missouri at Kansas City law professor, Kris W. Kobach, officials said.

Although Mr. Kobach, 36, is only a White House fellow on temporary assignment to the Justice Department, he also played a central role in another contentious proposal to give state and local police departments the power to track down illegal immigrants as a new tactic in the global war on terror.

[ppaul]

It's about friggin' time, don't you think?

[america-rules]

Yes it is but they have to do it in very small steps.

These guys aren't stupid and they know this and closing the borders has to be done but they will do it in very small steps. Ashcroft deported a few thousand arabs last week and nobody cried but if it was 20,000 they would scream all over the NY Times !

[america-rules]

"Ashcroft deported a few thousand arabs last week "

How many even knew this !

[GaryMontana]

I have a better idea. Kick the islamic arabs out of the USA. If there are no islamic arabs in the USA, there is no terrorism caused by them in the USA

[healey22]

This is targeting a group of people, the overwhelming majority of whom are innocent, but whose lives will be turned upside down," Mr. Zogby added.

How does fingerprinting someone and making them register with INS exactly turn someone's life upside down? Give me a break. These terrorist sympathizers are really showing their true colors.

[Grampa Dave]

Zogby is such a POS.

James J. Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, a policy organization, said the registration plan would be "an overtly discriminatory, inefficient and ineffective way to deal with the problem."

"This is targeting a group of people, the overwhelming majority of whom are innocent, but whose lives will be turned upside down," Mr. Zogby added. "The message it sends is that we're becoming like the Soviet Union, with people registering at police stations."

Hey Zogby, how about biometric scanning and lie detector tests for any Islamic male between age 12 and 82 from any country that has Islamic terrorists.

It they don't like it, they can go back to Islam. Turn their lives upside down until every potential terrorist is ferreted out or they all go home.

[monkeywrench]

I didn't know Ashcroft deported a few thousand arabs last week.

[The Great Satan]

Interesting. Somehow, I suspect that the administration wasn't all that worked up over the Dems' contrived "Dubya knew!" flap. It set the stage perfectly for a hailstorm of non-specific threat warnings all featuring muslims front-and-center. Now, even Maureen Dowd, voice of the brainwashed PC left, is openly calling for racial profiling. This is political jujitsu at its finest, from an established master.

[Joe Boucher]

It won't happen, some ahole lawyer will challenge on the basis of infringement on basic civil liberties and will win since we don't want to single out any group and make them feel unwanted.

[angkor]

Immigration specialists, meantime, are warning of new backlogs at airports

"The message it sends is that we're becoming like the Soviet Union, with people registering at police stations."

Red herrings, all.

Backlogs might form at airport immigration processing offices, not at the standard entry lines. There would be zero inmpact on U.S. citizens and those visitors not subject to fingerprinting.

As for Zogby's hysterical rant ... well, yes, we do want them registering at police stations. And we do want their stays to be scrutinzized and regulated, just as the stays of American citizens are regulated in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and everywhere else in the Middle East.

[FreedomPoster]

Don't most European countries already do that sort of resident foreigner registration? You register with the local police if you move your household, that sort of thing?

Of course, from the Left's perspective, that's like opening up gas chambers. < /sarcasm>

[The_Media_never_lie]

"This is targeting a group of people, the overwhelming majority of whom are innocent, but whose lives will be turned upside down," Mr. Zogby added. "The message it sends is that we're becoming like the Soviet Union, with people registering at police stations."

If the Arab states don't like it, they can stop supporting terrorists. They can also speak out against terror within the unmah. They should shut down the madrasas and jail clerics who preach violence for a start. After they've done that, then we should again treat their citizens like civilized people.

Is the Bill of Rights a suicide pact or is there something in it that says we must behave stupidly by letting our enemies within our country and not ask them any questions until they blow us up?

[SupplySider]

"This is targeting a group of people, the overwhelming majority of whom are innocent, but whose lives will be turned upside down,"

If they are innocent, they should be volunteering to help the FBI.

[eabinga]

Don't most European countries already do that sort of resident foreigner registration? You register with the local police if you move your household, that sort of thing?

I know in Germany everybody registers with the police, regardless of being a foreigner or not.

[livius]

This is political jujitsu at its finest,

Very good point, great satan. I also have noticed that things which we couldn't even discuss, before all of these intelligence failures were made public, are suddenly all over the news. And yes, it does appear that even the PC are beginning to notice that the people who have been attacking us over the last many a long year have ALL been Muslims (or, in the case of McVeigh, the tool of Muslims) and most of them here are indeed immigrants from Muslim countries. And PC types too are beginning to support Ashcroft's stronger measures. It's taken 9 months for reality to be acknowledged by some folks, but I guess that's better than never - or too late.

[section9]

I know in Germany everybody registers with the police, regardless of being a foreigner or not.

Yes, and they enjoy it, too!

Sorry, it's the Germans. I couldn't resist.

Be Seeing You,

Chris

[o_zarkman44]

Maybe some intelligent life does exist in Washington after all. Cutting through the PC bull crap, law enforcement needs someone to set an example to follow rather than wait for permission to enforce the laws.

Next step is the INS closing the borders until they can account for everyone in the country who has entered in the past year or 2.

[Dialup Llama]

>It's about friggin' time, don't you think?

You beat me to it. In those exact words.

Perhaps The Sum of All Fears is putting a crimp in the INS Open Borders- phoney SSN- fake ID OK- question no immigrant policy.

[Dialup Llama]

>"The message it sends is that we're becoming like the Soviet Union, with people registering at police stations."

WrongO. The Constitution is NOT a suicide pact and DOES NOT require that we allow dangerous aliens to enter our borders anonymously. Constitutionally, the govt is perfectly empowered to ID AND track people entering the US.