Immigrants under Glass

Reserve deportation for serious violations
Bee Editorial Staff
Published 2:15 a.m. PST Sunday, December 22, 2002

Thousands of males aged 16 years or older from five countries designated by U.S. authorities as sponsors of terrorism have registered with the Immigration and Naturalization Service as required by a new regulation. All were photographed, fingerprinted and interviewed, and may not change addresses, jobs or a course of study without notifying the INS in writing. Otherwise they become "out of status" and subject to arrest and deportation. That's reasonable, up to a point.

By Feb. 21, adult males from 15 other countries must go through the same procedure. In this way, the government hopes to keep track of men (presumably women do not commit acts of terrorism) from "suspect" countries. (That's our word; the Justice Department won't discuss the criteria for inclusion.)

How many men required to register actually did so is unclear. Many, say immigrant rights advocates, were unaware of the deadline or even the requirement; others have pending applications for permanent resident status, and others are afraid they could be arrested for being "out of status," in some cases through no fault of their own. Indeed, many were arrested -- about 500 at the Los Angeles INS office -- for overstaying their visa or violating its restrictions.

The registration program is part of a larger attempt to record the arrival and departure of all 35 million persons who visit this country each year. All of them -- tourists, students, business people -- must leave by the date their visas expire through designated ports of entry and exit. If they fail to comply, they can -- "dependent on the circumstances of each case," the INS says -- be denied future entry. We know of one such case, and he wasn't from a "suspect" country.

While it's hard to fault the underlying purpose of such a system, it ought to be implemented with common sense and compassion, to counteract a growing sense among foreigners that they are unwelcome here and may be treated as criminals. Most are not; indeed, would a real terrorist register with the INS unless he had an airtight cover story unlikely to be detected?

While all of this is going on, and as the number of foreign visitors drops, the Pentagon has cooked up another plan to project a more positive image of America to the world. To assume that the one side of this equation has nothing to do with the other is to live in a fantasy land.

(12/24/2002)

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