INS arrests lead to lawsuit

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January 2003

State budget deficits may mean health care cuts and worse
January Is poverty in America awareness month
Network accepting applications for its Associates Program
U.S. city councils call for peaceful resolution to Iraq crisis
U.S. bishops call for greater effort for refugees
New study documents religion's impact on environmentalism
INS arrests lead to lawsuit

INS arrests lead to lawsuit
Immigration and Arab American advocacy groups are protesting the recent arrests of hundreds of visitors from Middle Eastern countries because of visa violations and irregularities.

During the third week of December 2002, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) arrested hundreds of men and boys from Middle Eastern countries who arrived at INS offices in southern California—particularly Los Angeles—in compliance with new registration requirements. The requirements, announced by the Justice Department on June 5, 2002, are the first step in the creation by 2005 of a congressionally mandated National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS) to track all of the roughly 35 million visitors to the United States each year.

Under the requirements, males 16 years or older who are "temporary foreign visitors" from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan and Syria and "who were admitted to the United States as non-immigrants on or before September 10, 2002" had to report to a local INS office by December 16, 2002, to be photographed and fingerprinted. The majority of those arrested were charged with overstaying their visas, even if they had applications pending with the INS for permanent residency in the United States.

Male visitors from Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Eritrea, Lebanon, Morocco, North Korea, Oman, Qatar, Somalia, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen who were admitted as non-immigrants on or before September 30, 2002, must register by January 10, 2003. Male visitors from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia admitted to the United States on or before September 30, 2002, must register by February 21, 2003.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Office of Migration & Refugee Services and other immigrant advocates argue that arresting individuals seeking to comply with the new registration requirements is not an effective means of enhancing national security given that would-be terrorists are unlikely to voluntarily report to the INS. Moreover, the arrests are likely to discourage others from complying with the registration requirements.

On December 24, 2002, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the Alliance of Iranian Americans, the Council on American Islamic Relations and the National Council of Pakistani Americans filed a class action lawsuit against Attorney General John Ashcroft and the INS claiming that the arrests were unlawful and seeking an injunction on further arrests before the next registration deadline on January 10.

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