by Eric Lichtblau, Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON - About 100,000 visitors a year from more than 24 countries where terrorists have been known to live will be required to give fingerprints, register with the government and detail movements under a plan unveiled yesterday.
Another group of nearly 100,000 foreigners already in the country to work, study or visit also will be required to undergo fingerprinting and photographing in an effort to weed out suspected terrorists, Justice Department officials said.
The visa-registration system, marking the first time the United States has demanded fingerprints of such a large population of foreigners, sparked immediate protests from politicians, civil-liberties groups and Arab-American advocates.
“What is next? Forcing American Muslims to wear a star and crescent as a means of identification for law-enforcement authorities?” asked Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington.
Immigration experts also expressed doubts about whether such a major expansion of the mandate of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) — an agency riddled with problems — could be implemented effectively. Some diplomats within the Bush administration have expressed frustration over the impact the proposal could have on U.S. relations abroad and on U.S. residents traveling overseas.
Particularly frustrating to critics was that Attorney General John Ashcroft, in announcing a proposal that will take effect in the fall after a public comment period, refused to say what criteria will be used to identify most foreign visa-holders subject to the new system.
Virtually everyone entering the country on visas from five countries on the State Department’s list of nations that sponsor terrorism — Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan and Syria — would face fingerprinting, registration and much more rigorous questioning than in the past, Justice Department officials said.
Visitors from those countries make up less than one-fifth of the 100,000 new visitors who would be subjected to the new registration system, officials said.
The remainder, Ashcroft said, would be targeted based on criteria to determine their “risk of involvement in terrorist activity” and whether they fall into “categories of elevated national-security concern.”
Justice Department officials who asked not to be identified said those categories likely would include nationality, gender and age.
A Bush administration official said the Justice Department is targeting more than 24 countries. Another source placed the figure at 26, with Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Egypt, Kuwait, Jordan and other Middle Eastern nations among those thought to represent a higher risk.
Judy Golub, senior director of advocacy at the American Immigration Lawyers Association in Washington, said, “These are secret criteria from everything we can tell, and that’s very worrisome. ... It sends a terrible signal: If you come from a certain country, you’re a problem.”
Justice Department officials said current law allows them to register and fingerprint any illegal immigrant older than 14 who is in this country for more than 30 days. Those provisions rarely have been employed, but Ashcroft said immigration vulnerabilities exposed by the Sept. 11 hijackers demand extraordinary measures.
“On September 11, the American definition of national security changed and changed forever,” he said.
The program has several key components: fingerprinting and photographing visitors who may pose higher national-security risks; subjecting them to much more rigorous questioning about their histories and their plans and contacts in the United States; requiring those who stay more than 30 days to submit to periodic registration with the INS to verify that they are living, working or studying where they said they would be; and better monitoring when visitors leave and whether they have overstayed their visas.
Although the White House voiced support for Ashcroft’s plan yesterday, other departments in the administration have expressed concerns that it may go too far, endangering U.S. relations with allies in the Middle East and subjecting U.S. citizens traveling overseas to harassment.
Some officials reportedly were annoyed Ashcroft presented his plan as a done deal even though it must undergo public review — often just a formality — before it is finalized.