By Tanya Weinberg

Staff Writer December 10, 2002

As word spreads of a new regulation requiring men from certain countries to register with the federal government, calls from South Florida Arabs are flooding the office of Hollywood attorney Mazen Sukkar. ”They’re frantic,” said Sukkar, who published a notice in a local Arabic paper. “They’re asking, are they going to arrest us, are they going to detain us, and we don’t know the answers. ”The Department of Justice says new reporting requirements for citizens of 17 Muslim countries and North Korea could root out potential terrorists. Critics counter that those people will never come forward, some adding that the policy could even create a self-fulfilling prophecy by further alienating Muslim communities. Others call the requirement politically motivated and point to the notable absence on the list of Saudi Arabia and Egypt, strategically important American allies, and also home to all but one of the Sept. 11 hijackers. ”I can see what they’re trying to do as far as national security, but the people who we want to get are not going to show up. They’re not worrying about their [immigration] status,” said Miami immigration attorney Anis Saleh. “If you’re going to blow yourself up in six months, who cares if you’re [complying with INS] or not?” Reporting to INS Since Sept. 11 of this year, a registration system at ports and airports requires certain temporary residents and visitors to be fingerprinted and interviewed, report to INS after 30 days, then report again annually and before they leave the country. Their identities are also run through criminal, terrorist and immigration databases. The latest regulations requiring men from some countries to report to INS offices seeks to track immigrants who entered the United States before the port system was in place. The port-of-entry registration is required of individuals flagged on the basis of undisclosed classified criteria and nationals of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan and Syria. Last month the Justice Department announced that citizens of those five countries, all designated as state sponsors of terrorism, must report to INS by Dec. 16.On Dec. 2, the Justice Department expanded the reporting requirement to include citizens of Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Eritrea, Lebanon, Morocco, North Korea, Oman, Qatar, Somalia, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. They must report by Jan. 10.When they report, INS will ask the men for information including detailed family and work histories, credit card numbers and telephone numbers. The policy applies to all males older than 16 who are here on business and student visas, but not to U.S. citizens, permanent residents, diplomats, refugees and asylum applicants. ”There is a realistic possibility that there are potential terrorists among these temporary foreign visitors,” said Jorge Martinez, a Department of Justice spokesman. “What we’re trying to do is trying to close the loopholes that were taken advantage of, especially by the Sept. 11 hijackers, who although a lot of them had student visas, none of them were attending schools. ”Yet citizens of Saudi Arabia, home to 15 of the 19 hijackers, are not required to report to INS offices. Also absent from the list is Egypt, home to Mohamed Atta; and others with known terror networks, like Pakistan, a key ally in the U.S. war on terrorism. Martinez said more countries are likely to be added in the coming months, but would not specify which. ”What’s troubling about it is it’s selectively targeted and specifically at Arab countries, with the exceptions of those we feel diplomatically we cannot impose this on,” said David Cole, a Georgetown University law professor. ”It’s a form of ethnic profiling,” said Cole, whose book in progress, Enemy Aliens, asserts that now, as in past eras of national fear, immigrants’ liberties are the first to go.
“We’re going to treat as suspects a whole group of people based simply on national origin,” Cole said. “That’s not a terribly effective means of policing because it’s remarkably over-inclusive and very likely to do long-term damage to relationships of the type that law enforcement currently needs to strengthen with those very communities. It would be far better to get those within the community to identify any potential perpetrators. ”Some businessmen and professionals who spent hours waiting to register at the airport and the Miami INS office said they found the experience intimidating. But they asked that their names not be used in the paper. ”They are afraid to be arrested for what they say. They feel they don’t have any rights,” said Sofian Abdelaziz Zakkout, a member of the Florida Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and director of the Miami-based American Muslim Association of North America. “We agree with the law, but it should be for everybody. ”Arrests are possible The Justice Department reports that 179 individuals have been arrested at ports, although none for terrorism. Now immigration attorneys across the country are beginning to report some arrests at INS offices. Minnesota attorney Elizabeth Streefland said she warned her client, a Libyan auto mechanic, that although INS had granted him work authorization, the agency could arrest him because it had yet to approve his pending application for permanent residency. ”He was saying, `They wouldn’t do that. They’re going to encourage me to tell them everything I know and I’m going to be open with them because I want to become a U.S. citizen,’” Streefland said. The man and two others attempting to register at the Minneapolis INS office were handcuffed, arrested and held all day with only brief contact with their attorneys, said Streefland and the other men’s attorney, Brian Aust. Along with the other two men, the mechanic was released, but he must now convince an immigration judge not to deport him. “He’s extremely humiliated,” Streefland said.While immigration attorneys say it is rare for INS to put non-criminals with pending applications into deportation proceedings, INS officials note that they have the discretion to do so to anyone lacking legal status. Those who willfully fail to comply with the registration program could be deported, fined, jailed or barred from future immigration benefits. The concept of immigrant registration is not new in the United States. Beginning in World War II, immigrants had to report to authorities yearly. That was discontinued in the early 1980s, said Mark Krikorian, Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a pro-enforcement group. He said the omission of Saudi Arabia from the list is one sign that the administration, with its “inordinate concern for the Saudi royal family” is pursuing the least politically disruptive measures. Even if that omission is reversed, Krikorian said, Al Qaeda is likely already looking to send people here who don’t fit an Arab profile. He pointed out that Chechens hold Russian citizenship, that the Philippines and China have active Muslim separatist groups, and that India is home to 130 million Muslims. ”What do we do then, have special registration for Filipino, Indian, and Chinese immigrants? These are some of the top immigrant sending countries,” he said. “I’m not sure INS has the resources to do that.”
The new registration program is a mix of substance and symbolism, said Florida International University security expert Ivelaw Griffith. ”Much of responding to threats is trial and error,” he said. “People want to see that their leaders are doing something. ”Tanya Weinberg can be reached at tweinberg@sun-sentinel.com or 305-810-5029.Copyright © 2002, South Florida Sun-Sentinel