The approach was implemented by Ashcroft

WASHINGTON, November 22 (IslamOnline.net) – In a move welcomed by America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, the U.S. administration plans to abandon a visitor-registration program that primarily targets Muslim males from predominantly Muslim countries and drew complaints from civil liberties groups, a leading U.S. newspaper reported Friday, November 21.

The decision of the Department of Homeland Security came after thousands had protested the unexpected arrest of law-abiding people, who were ordered later to be deported and after many department officials have deemed the effort ineffective, said The Washington Post.

The approach was implemented late last year by Attorney General John Ashcroft and the Justice Department, which at the time oversaw the immigration service and border police.

Government sources close to the department's deliberations on the program told the Post a decision to end the system could be announced within days. 

"We are continuing to evaluate the effectiveness of the special registration program, to determine if it is meeting efficiency goals and national security needs," Homeland Security spokesman Bill Strassberger said, according to the paper.

Strassberger said a new border-control system set to begin January 5, the U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology program (U.S. VISIT), will play a similar role in monitoring visitors, the daily said.

The program will use photographs and fingerprints to log entries and exits at major U.S. airports and seaports.

Ineffective

Many officials with the Homeland Security Department view the program as ineffective and a waste of limited resources, saying that the program should have never been implemented, as per the Post.

"The real question all along has been 'What is the purpose of this system?'" Crystal Williams, liaison director for the American Immigration Lawyers Association, was quoted by the paper as saying.

"There has never been a clear answer to that. It looks like a trap. It's a game of gotcha, a real bait-and-switch."

Many Muslims saw the program as another attempt to single them out and remove them as part of the government crackdown that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The Foreign Minister of Pakistan has warned that the program could provoke a backlash that would bolster the cause of what he termed “Islamic extremists” in that country.

Nearly 14,000 foreign nationals who showed up to be fingerprinted and photographed for the registration were placed in deportation proceedings, according to the Post's count.

Poorly Publicized

A part of the program requires that those who remain in the country a year later register again within 10 days of the anniversary of their first appointment, the daily added.

But Immigration advocates complain that many registrants were not informed of this "little-noticed" requirement when they first registered and that the Homeland Security Department has poorly publicized the rules since then, according to the paper.

"Most people, especially foreign visitors, don't read the Federal Register when they wake up in the morning," David Leopold, an immigration lawyer in Cleveland, told the Post.

"People are being set up to fail. There is a complete failure to communicate information."

The American Civil Liberties Union complained in an Oct. 30 letter to immigration officials that "we are not aware of any meaningful efforts undertaken by the Department of Homeland Security to publicize these impending deadlines or any of the other requirements that may be applicable to persons who registered," the Post said.

Welcomed

The administration's move, however, was welcomed by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

"We would applaud the elimination of the special registration program because it singled out visitors based on their religion and national origin, alienated law-abiding visitors and did little or nothing to improve national security," said CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad.

"Like all Americans, Muslims are concerned about national security and will support any measures that treat all visitors equally."

Awad added that any new screening procedures should not be based on religion, ethnicity or national origin.

CAIR is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and has 25 regional offices nationwide and in Canada.