Oregon Public Broadcasting (Portland, OR) 
January 10, 2003 

ACTIVISTS SHOW SOLIDARITY FOR INS REGISTRANTS 
By Rob Manning
LISTEN ONLINE

PORTLAND, OR 2003-01-10 (Oregon Considered) - The Immigration and Naturalization Service started what it's calling special registration on September 11, 2002 to try to limit the chance of attacks like the ones that struck New York and Washington DC a year before. Students and other long-term visitors to the U.S. are required to go through special registration.

While the INS says the process is little different from what Europe has done for years, opponents point to last month's arrests in Los Angeles as evidence of what can happen to foreign nationals trying to comply. Today was the last day nationals from 15 countries could go through special registration--and activists were at the Portland INS office to show solidarity with them.

Under INS guidelines, thousands of foreign nationals from countries around the world are being required to go to an INS office to prove they're legally in the U.S. Officials then fingerprint them, take photographs and conduct interviews. Law enforcement officials say it's necessary to keep track of potential terrorists coming into the country.

Ed Sale with the Portland INS office says it's a process that will soon affect every foreign visitor to the U.S.

Ed Sale: We're eventually going to track people from every country. But we're starting with countries that sponsor terrorism, or might be harboring members of Al Qaida.

But civil libertarians and peace activists say the new rules take away the rights of people who haven't committed any crimes. Annalisa Bandalera with the Oregon Peace Institute says special registration unfairly targets people.

Annalisa Bandalera: Imagine if you were a 16 year-old child, basically, and leave your parents outside and have to be fingerprinted and photographed, knowing about the arrests that took place in LA.

Bandalera says she doesn't see how the system increases security. Immigration lawyer Dick Ginsberg agrees. Ginsberg says his Lebanese clients were worried before going through the interview process. Ginsberg says one of his clients had a pretty easy time of it, but another was detained for some time while immigration officials checked him out.

Dick Ginsberg: One of them was relieved after going through. But the other was pretty shaken up, because they detained him for a few hours and went through his paperwork.

Ginsberg says his clients got off easy. He says many going through the special registration get detained, and even deported. Ed Sale of the INS says immigrants are getting arrested for violations that would have gotten them arrested under any circumstances, regardless of special registration.

But like OPI's Bandalera, attorney Ginsberg doesn't see the new process doing much to stop terrorism because people willing to go through the process are unlikely to be terrorists. The net effect, says Somali refugee Kayse Jama is that the reputation of the United States will decline even further.

Kayse Jama: I thought before I came to this country there wasn't discrimination and I see it all the time. I study and learn to live with it, but it keeps coming up .

The INS declined to discuss the number of people it has registered or detained processed in the latest round. No one who was going through special registration was willing to speak with OPB for this story. The next deadline for registration is in February, for Saudi and Pakistani nationals.

Copyright 2003 Oregon Public Broadcasting