The latest in the government's series of ill-conceived and discriminatory policies is the implementation of the Special Call-In Registration System. The Department of Justice has issued three notices since November requiring all nonimmigrant men over the age of 16 who are from a list of 18 Muslim countries, North Korea and Eritrea to register in person at Immigration and Naturalization Service offices before certain deadlines. Registrants must then check in regularly with the government every year thereafter.
Thus far, the special registration has been nothing short of a disaster. Due to an almost complete lack of public notice, an enormous percentage of the targeted group will not learn of the registration in sufficient time. The order itself is written in difficult to understand language that few native speakers of English can comprehend without significant effort or explanation.
These registration schemes are not making us any safer and in fact serve only to disenfranchise and alienate the very communities whose assistance the government should be seeking. They do nothing but damage our reputation as a freedom-loving society and a land welcoming of immigrants. Our government must stop wasting precious resources engaging in discriminatory round ups.
Urge Congress to Stop the Special Registration!
Targeting innocent Arab and Muslim men is ineffective and wrong.
In this time of federal budget shortfalls, wasting already scarce resources on registering and detaining innocent Muslims and Arabs will divert tax dollars that could be better used investigating and preventing actual terrorist activity and arresting real terrorist suspects. Focusing on racial and ethnic characteristics instead of individual suspicion is wasteful and just plain un-American.
The Department of Justice and the Immigration and Naturalization Service have not met even the most minimum standards of fairness.
The INS announced these new requirements in confusing and complicated notices in the Federal Register. Officials did not appropriately or adequately publicize the new requirements, did not immediately and accurately translate the notices into all appropriate languages and did not allow enough time for individuals to learn of the requirements and then register. Further, the INS did not provide a registration facility in every state. It is under these circumstances that officials set the restrictive deadline for registration at one month.
Finally, this special INS registration program has the appearance of being nothing more than an excuse to deport people who are of certain religious, national and ethnic backgrounds.
Last month, hundreds of men and boys, including many who voluntarily came to INS facilities to register, were arrested, detained and mistreated. Stories of these abuses sent waves of fear through the affected communities and prevented many people who would have registered from doing so. Now these men and boys-even those whose immigration status is otherwise entirely lawful-now face arrest and deportation.
TAKE ACTION!