The Immigration and Naturalization Service has added five to the list of countries whose citizens in the United States require special registration—and opened up the question of when India will make the list.
Speculation was further fuelled when CNN’s Larry King asked Attorney General John Ashcroft Dec. 17 about the special registration process, and the latter replied, “This is a process which Congress has mandated be comprehensive by 2005. So, the business of the NSEERS [National Security Entry-Exit Registration System] program, the Exit, Entry, Registration System program, the national program, that will cover every nation—24 months from now, it’s going to cover everyone.”
That India’s turn will come is obvious, points out New York-based immigration attorney and India Broad columnist Allen E. Kaye. “It is expected the Department of Justice may add other countries to the list to register, so people should be alert,” Kaye warned.
Indian embassy officials in Washington, D.C. said they have no intimation of any such move this far.
Cyrus Mehta, another immigration attorney in New York, said the law requires the government to get details of all non-immigrants—which automatically includes Indians who, he says, will have to go through some form of registration.
“What remains to be seen is whether the government will act in the same deplorably way they are doing now,” says Mehta, adding that he condemned the way citizens from Islamic nations were being treated in the name of registration. “They may be more considerate with countries like India.”
Explaining the rationale dictating which countries were picked for registration, Ashcroft told King. “We started out based on State sponsors of terrorism. They were the first ones to go into the system. Then other nationals are being added as we ramp up, and it’s a matter of a short period of time that the United Sate is going to be more careful about its borders. WE want to know who’s here, and we want to know who leaves.”
On Jan. 15, the INS added Bangladesh, Indonesia, Egypt, Jordan and Kuwait to the list, bringing the number of countries to 25. All male citizens of the countries on the list, above the age of 16, are required to register with the INS.
Registration of Pakistani and Saudi Arabian nationals ends Feb. 21. The deadline for registration for the five countries named above is Feb. 24 through March 8.
Linked to a provision in the 1996 immigration reform, and authorized by Congress under the USA Patriot Act, the new National Security Entry-Exit Registration System was intended to keep tabs on who is in the United Sates, legally or illegally.
The INS says, “The NSEERS program helps ensure our nation’s security by projecting the rights of individuals coming to this country as well as the safety of the American people. While America is an open and generous society that welcomes visitors from foreign countries, it is essential that the government know who is entering and exiting our borders.”
Ash croft said the NSEERS has three fundamental components: “The first is fingerprinting at the border. The second is periodic registration and confirmation of visitors’ activities while they are within our borders.
“Our European allies have had similar registration systems in place for decades and know the value of ensuring that foreign visitors are doing what they said they would do and living where they said they would live. The NSEERS system takes the European model and combines it with a modern intranet system so that files may be updated in real time in any INS office in the country.”
The third component is a system of exit controls. Visitors must complete a departure check when they leave the country. “Now, the INS can know immediately when a high-risk alien overstays his visa,” Ashcroft said.
The registration process does not cover legal permanent residents, refugees, asylum grantees, certain asylum applicants and diplomats.
People who came to the United States after Sept. 30, 2002, do not need to register, as they have completed the new registration formalities at the airport.
