INS anti-terrorism policy criticized

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2002 | 10:59 a.m.

About 45 citizens of countries that the federal government says are likely to produce terrorists had registered in Las Vegas by Monday's deadline for a new policy, an Immigration and Naturalization official said.

The new rules required men over the age of 16 from Iraq, Iran, Libya, Sudan and Syria who entered the country on or before Sept.10, 2001, to be interviewed, photographed and fingerprinted by the Immigration and Naturalization Services.

The policy aims to ensure that students, businessmen, tourists and others are doing what their visas said they would be doing in the United States, according to an INS press release. The policy has caused some confusion and provoked criticism, however. U.S. Department of Justice officials did not return phone calls from the Las Vegas Sun about the policy Monday.

One problem with the new rules is that many people -- possibly hundreds in Southern Nevada -- may not have heard about the deadline, local immigration lawyers said. That leaves those people exposed to possible penalties, ranging from criminal prosecution to deportation, and that's not fair given that the INS didn't publish the deadline in the Federal Register until last month, the lawyers said.

"This policy is basically targeting people based on national origin, race and religion instead of (military and foreign) intelligence," said Judy Golub, senior director of advocacy for the 7,200-member American Immigration Lawyers Association.

Proponents of the policy have said, however, that the countries were chosen because the federal government concluded that there is a heightened potential for citizens from those countries to be terrorists.

Reza Athari, a Las Vegas immigration attorney with about 15 clients who needed to register, said: "If you're a terrorist, you're not going to make yourself known to the INS."

The Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies, which favors tightening immigration policies, has said the policy may not be the most effective use of the agency's limited resources.

"The INS should be able to track non-citizens and this is a worthy and important goal," said Mark Krikorian, executive director for the center.

"The problem is for 30 years we have built an INS that doesn't function well, and it doesn't have the manpower and resources to do everything we want it to. (So this) places them in a difficult situation."

Kathy Banos, one of two INS officials who supervised the Las Vegas registration, acknowledged that ongoing changes in immigration policy since Sept. 11, 2001, have been difficult for her office. "We're drowning in paperwork here," she said. "We're getting new information daily and it's hard to keep up."

The Las Vegas office had one person handling registration for the first five countries in the program. Additional officers will be trained to register people from 13 additional countries that will have to report by January 10, Banos said. These countries are: Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Eritrea, Lebanon, Morocco, North Korea, Oman, Qatar, Somalia, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

More countries will be added to the program in the future, the INS said.

Immigration attorneys around the country reported inconsistencies in how the policy has been applied so far, said Crystal Williams, director of liaison and information for the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

There were also reports of people being detained because their visas had expired and they had not yet finished the process of becoming residents through marriage to a U.S. citizen or other means.

Athari, the Las Vegas immigration attorney, said one of his clients in this situation was detained yesterday for eight hours.

Banos declined to answer specific questions about how the policy was applied in Las Vegas, including what penalties late registrants may face.

"First we would have to find out why they did not register and see if there were any extenuating circumstances, and then they might be referred for further action," she said.