Registration of visitors to U.S. called smoother

By Timothy Pratt (contact)

Monday, Jan. 13, 2003 | 9:07 a.m.

About 100 men from 13 countries had registered with Las Vegas immigration authorities by Friday's deadline, as a national Muslim group monitored the day's events for possible civil rights violations.

But the day passed without incident, at least in part because Immigration and Naturalization Services offices nationwide had received clearer orders about how to carry out the program after a controversial earlier deadline passed last month.

"There have been several superseding memorandums since last time," said Karen Dorman, officer in charge for the Las Vegas INS office. "We had clearer instructions about the whole process."

On Dec. 16, men older than 16 from Iraq, Iran, Libya, Sudan and Syria in the U.S. with tourist or business visas, or some other temporary immigration status, had to register with the immigration agency. Hundreds of people said to be innocent were detained in large cities such as Los Angeles, drawing criticism from Muslim and immigration groups.

The same groups wondered whether many hadn't registered by Friday's deadline because of a lack of information or for fear of mistreatment at the hands of the agency.

"The reason people didn't show up to register is because they didn't know or they are afraid and think they might as well get some days of freedom before they are detained," said Aziz Eddebbarh, a Las Vegas resident and member of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, a group that monitored the program at the immigration agency's offices nationwide.

With the exception of North Korea, the 13 countries affected by Friday's deadline were predominantly Muslim: Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Eritrea, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Somalia, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

Starting today and up until Feb. 21, men from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan must register. Though it is unclear how many men may be living in the Las Vegas Valley from any of the 18 countries registered so far -- or the two to come -- the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that 6,183 people of Arab ancestry live in Clark County. Other figures show 58,605 from Asia and 4,310 from Africa. Those figures say nothing about citizenship status.

Peter Ashman, a Las Vegas immigration attorney, estimates that the valley's Pakistani population is considerably higher than that of the countries registered so far.

"Judging by the calls I've been receiving, there's a lot of concern out there about this program," he said.

Reza Athari, also a Las Vegas immigration attorney, said that about a dozen men from Morocco, Lebanon, Somalia, Tunisia and other countries on the agency's list had called his office before Friday's deadline, afraid of being detained despite having student or business visas allowing them to be in the country.

"This law could have been implemented in a much fairer way without scaring people," he said.

"Registration in itself is good -- it's good to know who's in your country. But how they've done it is not right."

The program is one a series of post-Sept.11 attempts to tighten immigration policies. Registration includes fingerprinting and an interview,usually lasting from 15 to 30 minutes, Dorman said. Though less than a dozen registered Friday, Dorman estimated that nearly 100 had done so in the days leading up to the deadline.

By Friday, none of the men had been detained, after "two or three" temporary detentions during last month's registration, Dorman said.

But critics claim that making people from countries with large Muslim populations feel targeted will only alienate them from the government while doing little to catch potential terrorists.

"We feel very strongly that any law that picks out one people, one religion, one ethnic group, is not a good law," said Khalid Khan, a spokesman for the Islamic Society of Nevada.

"That's how they lose their trust," said Khalid Nooristani, originally from Afghanistan and now a U.S. citizen. "If you don't have the people's trust, it won't work."

Mark Krikorian, director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington-based group that favors tightening immigration policies, said the program should be expanded to non-Muslim countries, both from a political and practical point of view.

"The concept of a registration program tracking who comes and who goes is very important -- as long as it tracks people from all countries," he said.

Dorman said the program's first deadlines are "only a start.

"These countries were chosen because they have a nexus with al-Qaida. But this is only a way into it, and other countries will follow," she said.

"I hate to put it this way, but this is still a work in progress."