Cite as "Posted on AILA InfoNet at Doc. No. 03010940
(Jan. 9, 2003) ."
American Immigration Lawyers Association
Statement
January 9, 2003
Contact:
Judith Golub (202) 216-2403
Charlie Miller (202) 466-2080
Dane VandenBerg (202) 466-7246
Immigration Special Registration Must Be Repealed,
Say Immigration Lawyers on Eve of Second Round of Deadlines
Substantial Problems Jeopardize, Rather Than Protect,
National Security
STATEMENT BY JEANNE BUTTERFIELD
Executive Director, American Immigration Lawyers Association
The “special registration” program that the
U.S. Government has put into place is a misguided attempt to increase
our nation’s security. The American people deserve better than
this false solution to a very real problem. Our nation will not be made
more secure by requiring innocent immigrants to report to INS offices
to “register”, only to find themselves subject to arbitrary
arrest, detention, abuse and possible deportation.
We urge the Department of Justice/Immigration and Naturalization
Service to spend their limited resources in more effective and sensible
ways. Programs to enhance our nation’s security should target terrorists,
not innocent people.
The “special registration” program is fundamentally
flawed. The program substitutes national origin/racial/religious profiling
for effective law enforcement profiling based on intelligence information.
The program is also deeply flawed in its implementation.
The INS has used special registration to detain people who are on the
path to permanent residency. Hundreds of arrests have resulted. The
Department of Justice (DOJ) has not given the INS the necessary staff,
resources and guidance to implement the program. As a result, dozens
of people attempting to comply with the law have been turned away and
told to come back at a future time. Finally, even though the INS has
not effectively educated the public about the program, those who reported
“late” after hearing about the program through news reports,
friends and lawyers, have been detained and told that they are being
punished for reporting after the deadline.
We call on President Bush to end this misguided program.
At the very least, existing deadlines must be extended so that implementation
problems can be addressed and corrected. Necessary corrections include:
-
Special registration (or other future programs)
should not detain or deport people who have a claim to legal status.
It makes no sense from security or economic perspectives to target
people who eventually will be granted lawful status. These people
have applications pending for lawful permanent status, have been issued
employment authorization documents, or are otherwise are eligible
for lawful status. They are technically and temporary “out of
status” due to INS delays and inefficiencies.
-
The DOJ/INS must adequately publicize program requirements,
initiate effective outreach programs, and not penalize those who did
not register because they did not know about the program. The
DOJ/INS needs to do a better job of effectively disseminating information
and take responsibility for inadequately publicizing this program
and its requirements. The DOJ/INS needs to grant waivers for those
who did not register for the program because they had no knowledge
of it or because of the fear created by the mass arrests of registrants
in some offices.
-
The DOJ/INS must implement uniform procedures in
their district offices that make sense. Because the DOJ/INS has
provided insufficient guidance to district offices, these offices
have used their discretion to adopt widely disparate procedures to
implement special registration. Such disparities should end, replaced
by uniform procedures that make sense.
-
The DOJ/INS needs to clarify registration requirements.
The registration requirements are unclear. The result has been that
some people are being turned away from registration centers while
others are unsure if they are required to register. The lack of meaningful
outreach to the affected communities makes this problem even worse.
-
The DOJ/INS must take steps to guard against another
potential trap for innocent visitors. A little-publicized rule
in special registration requires those who have been registered to
report to Departure Control each time they leave the U.S. Few registrants
are given clear information about this rule, but if they fail to follow
it correctly, they will be forever barred from returning to the U.S.
