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.”

“The choice immigrants have is to come forward and face arrest or deportation or not to come forward and become illegal aliens,” said Leila Al-Qatami, a spokeswoman for Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee.