so i was thinking we could get them tattoos at the same time..

[Guest guest]

and give them shirts with maybe a triangle or crescent stitched on the sleeve or

front

*shakes head*

 

100,000 Foreign Visitors to Face Fingerprinting

By Wayne Washington and Robert Schlesinger

Boston Globe Staff Writer

 

Thursday, 6 June, 2002

 

WASHINGTON - As many as 100,000 foreign visitors who enter the United States

could be fingerprinted and photographed in the first year the government

implements a system designed to keep out suspected terrorists and track

noncitizens on extended stays, the US Justice Department announced yesterday.

 

If designated by the Justice Department as being of national security concern,

visitors would undergo those identification procedures when they attempt to

enter the country, and, if admitted, they would have to register with the

Immigration and Naturalization Service within 30 days and every 12 months after

their entry.

 

Attorney General John D. Ashcroft said that such mandatory registration, which

he said would also apply to some visa holders already in the United States,

would help ensure that foreign visitors live where they say they would on their

visa applications and are doing what they said they would do in this country.

 

''We are an open country that welcomes the people of the world to visit our

blessed land,'' Ashcroft said. ''Asking some visitors to verify their activities

while they are here is fully consistent with that outlook.''

 

Arab-Americans, civil liberties groups, immigration lawyers, and educators whose

schools have educated thousands of foreign students questioned and criticized

the proposed system. They contend it is part of a steady encroachment on

individual rights in the name of fighting terrorism.

 

The updated system is intended to be the first phase of a congressionally

mandated program that, by 2005, is to track the more than 35 million people who

visit the United States each year. Announcement of the identification and

registration procedures, to be in place by September, follows other Justice

Department changes in immigration rules this year to track foreign students and

limit the time most visitors can remain in the country.

 

The rule changes would affect 20,000 of the 550,000 foreign students who come to

the US to study, said Terry Hartle, senior vice president of the American

Council on Education, a lobbying group representing 1,800 colleges.

 

Jean Abinader, managing director of the Arab American Institute, predicted that

relatives of Middle Easterners who already live in the United States will be

intimidated by the proposed rules.

 

Abinader said the new rules amount to the Justice Department telling such

relatives, ''We're putting you on notice that your countries are enemies of the

US, so you may be subject to more scrutiny than you have been in the past.'' As

a result, she said, ''I think there's an intimidation factor, maybe

unintended.''

 

Under a federal law passed in the 1950s, noncitizens older than 14 who intend to

stay in the United States longer than 30 days are required to register and be

fingerprinted, but immigration officials started waiving the fingerprinting

requirements 25 years ago, Ashcroft said.

 

Stricter standards have remained in place for visitors from Iraq, Iran, Libya,

Sudan, and Syria, nations the State Department has designated as sponsors of

terrorism. Visitors from those countries have had to register and be

fingerprinted and photographed.

 

Now other visitors - those the Justice Department decides will pose an elevated

security risk and those who meet still undetermined criteria that immigration

inspectors will apply - will be treated the same as visitors from the four

nations believed to sponsor terrorism.

 

The additional visitors subject to the procedures could come from practically

any country, Ashcroft said. Justice Department officials estimated that 100,000

people would be affected each year.

 

''All people, whether American or not, must realize that times have changed,''

said Representative Mark Foley, a Florida Republican whose district is near one

of the flight schools that some of the Sept. 11 hijackers attended. ''It may not

be pretty, and it may not be convenient, but we will defend Americans at any

cost.''

 

Some visitors will be told that they must provide any change of address within

10 days, another statute already on the books but rarely enforced. Failure to

register could result in prosecution, with potential penalties of a $1,000 fine,

jail, or deportation.

 

Those registering in the new system will be required to provide immigration

officials with much more detailed information. Justice Department officials said

they will be asked to fill out an extensive form listing such things as where or

if they attended college, the purpose of their visit, the names of contacts here

and in their home country, and such personal characteristics as eye color. Such

visitors will also be required to say how long they plan to stay in the United

States and will be asked if they are members of a terrorist organization.

 

A Justice Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that

last question might sound absurd, but it would form the basis for a criminal

complaint if a visitor is found to have terrorist ties after declaring on the

immigration form that there were no such connections.

 

The new rules will undergo a standard 30-day public comment period before they

can be made official with publication in the Federal Register.

 

Once they take effect, the rules would add to the already considerable tasks of

the beleagured INS. As many as 100,000 people already in the United States would

have to register under the new rules, Justice Department officials said.

 

Counterterrorism specialists said that would-be terrorists would not be likely

to go looking for the nearest INS office.

 

Ian Cuthbertson, director of the counterterrorism project at the World Policy

Institute, predicted that terrorists would simply enter illegally through Mexico

or Canada, which he said is ''still remarkably easy.''

 

The American Civil Liberties Union also questioned the effectiveness of the

proposed rules and called them racist.

 

''The Bush administration is, step by step, isolating Muslim and Arab

communities, both in the eyes of the government and the American public,'' said

Timothy Edgar, legislative counsel for the ACLU.

 

Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, oversees the Justice

Department as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He was blunt in

expressing distaste for the new rules.

 

''This is a troubling and poorly thought-out regulation,'' Kennedy said. ''It

was proposed without any consultation with Congress. It does little to provide

real protection against terrorism. I fear this proposal will open a shameful

chapter in our history that we as a nation will come to regret.''