LOS
ANGELES, January 11 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Hundreds of
Middle Eastern men lined up Friday, January 10, to be photographed and
finger-printed ahead of a deadline imposed under disputed new U.S.
immigration rules aimed at cracking down on alleged terrorists.
Long
queues of men from 12 mainly Muslim states and North Korea formed
outside immigration offices across the United States to beat a Friday
registration deadline, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
The
Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) has demanded that all
males aged 16 and over from the 13 nations, who do not have resident
status, appear before an INS agent by Friday night to be photographed,
questioned and give fingerprints.
Many
Muslim leaders, who say their community has suffered enough after the
September 11 attacks in 2001, predicted the new rules will lead to new
arrests.
Detentions
were reported in California, where hundreds of Muslim
men were rounded up in December. But rights groups say the measures
are only spreading fear and will do little to track potential
terrorists.
This
round of the “special registration” involves nationals from
Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Eritrea, Lebanon, Morocco, North Korea,
Oman, Qatar, Somalia, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
Iranians,
Iraqis, Libyans, Sudanese and Syrians had to register by December 16.
Pakistanis and Saudis without resident status must go to the INS by
February 21.
The
registrations are required under the U.S. Patriot Act, passed after
the September 11 strikes on New York and Washington, allegedly to
allow authorities to track so-called potential terrorists living in
the United States.
Amnesty
Urges U.S. to Review Immigration Move
 |
Muslim,
Arab-American and civil liberties groups protested the
detentions that took place in Southern California last month
|
Meanwhile,
Amnesty International Friday urged the United States to review its
controversial immigration rules, asserting that detained foreigners
had been mistreated.
The
London-based human rights organization said it was concerned following
“the detention last month of a large number of Middle Eastern and
Muslim men and boys, after they had come forward voluntarily to comply
with a first deadline to register” with the authorities.
Amnesty
believed that around 400 people had been held, most in southern
California, and 18 remained in detention.
The
human rights group said that some detainees were reportedly denied
food and medicines and access to lawyers, and some were forced to
sleep standing up on concrete floors, in freezing conditions with no
blankets.
“The
U.S. government must investigate all allegations of ill-treatment
thoroughly,” Amnesty said.
The
human rights group called on the U.S. “to ensure respect for the
human rights of non-citizens and to review the special registration
process to ensure that it is administered fairly and complies with the
principle of non-discrimination under international law.”
Criticism
at Home
Inside
the U.S., protesters led by U.S. civil rights campaigner Al Sharpton
protested outside the Los Angeles immigration department as foreigners
registered inside.
Brandishing
placards bearing slogans such as “Police state restrictions,” they
slammed the Patriot Act as legislation that undermined civil rights by
allowing acts like last month’s mass detentions.
Muslim
organizations this time fielded scores of fluorescent yellow clad
“human rights monitors” to monitor the registrations.
“There
are far fewer people registering ahead of (Friday’s) deadline as
last time, even though citizens of more countries are required to do
so,” said Salman Al-Marayati of the Muslim Public Affairs Council.
“That
is leading many people to suspect that people may be too afraid to
come in after what happened in December,” he said.
Immigration
service spokesman Francisco Arcaude said no figures were immediately
available on numbers coming forward or of detentions made.
However,
officials had beefed up guidelines dictating which foreigners should
be detained, to avoid the public relations debacle that followed the
December detentions.
Hundreds
of people also queued in freezing temperatures at the immigration
service in South Manhattan in New York.
Khaled
Abdel Hafid, a 28-year-old Tunisian who arrived in the United States
four years ago, told AFP: “I don’t think any terrorist is going to
be stupid enough to stand in line in the cold or to show up and say
‘Hey, I’m here’.
“Honest
people will come, and as a reward they are going to be deported. Most
of the people here are illegal immigrants, people whose visas
expired.”
Dalia
Hashad, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), said
the immigration measures were “an incredible waste of government
resources, harassing innocent men and boys.
“It’s
a false solution to a real problem. It’s based on racial, religious
and ethnic profiling.”
