U.S. to prevent unwanted visitors
By Anwar Iqbal
WASHINGTON, May 20 (UPI) Muslim immigrants welcomed a new immigration program that intends to prevent unwanted visitors from entering the country and calls for strict monitoring of those who are allowed to enter.
Muslim advocacy groups, representing those subjected to special registration and other restrictions after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, said they believe the new system would be better because it would apply to all visitors and not just those from the Islamic world.
"It is an improvement on the special registration as it applies to all countries and not just Muslims," said Hussein Ibish, communications director for the Washington-based American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.
"This seems like a good program, it will help strengthen our national security," said Faiz Rehman who heads another advocacy group called the National Council of Pakistani-Americans.
The National Immigration Forum, a pro-immigrant advocacy organization, said that the new system does propose several good steps to improve national security.
But all advocacy groups also warned that the new system could become counter-productive if it were allowed to target people from the Islamic world alone, as did the special registration system, implemented late last year.
On Monday, the Department of Homeland Security launched a new program to register visitors and to monitor their activities in the country, called the United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology or US VISIT. Its purpose is to implement the policies enacted by Congress after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States.
"Under US VISIT, we will eventually
have information on our visitors collected at our consular
officers ... that will confirm identity, measure security
risks and assess the legitimacy of travel of visitors to the U.S.,"
said Undersecretary Asa Hutchinson.
"On September 11th, 2001, 19 terrorists took advantage of
our welcoming nature ... and took the lives of 3,000 of our fellow
citizens and, I might add, citizens from other nations,
too," said Hutchinson while explaining the need for a new
monitoring system for visitors.
"One of the hijackers, Hani Hanjour, had violated the terms of his student visa, not showing up to school as required. Another, Mohammed Atta, had overstayed his visa on a previous occasion, and violated his current tourist visa by taking flying lessons. Both could have been stopped by an effective US VISIT system," he added.
"US VISIT will replace fear with knowledge, protecting Americans," said Hutchinson.
Congress has appropriated nearly $400 million
for this year alone to establish the new system at U.S. airports
and seaports.
The program is extensive.
A new biometric technology will be used to identify visitors when they arrive at an airport or seaport and to access related information about that visitor. This information will be available at U.S. ports of entry as well as throughout the entire U.S. immigration enforcement system.
U.S. officials will be provided with information on who violates entry requirements, who overstays or does not follow the terms of their stay, and who to welcome again.
The Department of Homeland Security will oversee the visa issuance process.
The State Department will encourage the countries whose citizens do not need a U.S. visa to use tamper-proof passports that include biometric identifiers. Visa-waiver countries would be asked to use biometrics by Oct. 26, 2004.
Immigration officials will now use two biometric identifiers initially, fingerprints and photographs; later, as the technology is improved, additional forms such as facial recognition or iris scans, to identify a visitor.
By Jan. 1, 2004, if a foreign visitor arrives at a U.S. port of entry his or her travel documents will be scanned. Then, once a photo and fingerprint are taken, the person will then be checked against lists of those who should be denied entry for any reason terrorist connections, criminal violations, or past visa violations.
The information requested will include immigrant and citizenship status; nationality; the country of residence; and the person's address while in the United States. Incomplete information will no longer be good enough.
When a visitor leaves the United States,
U.S. authorities will verify his or her identity and record their
departure information. This would tell the Department of Homeland
Security whether a person violated the terms or duration of his
or her stay.
US VISIT will also be able to track changes in immigration
status and make updates and adjustments accordingly. For example,
if a foreign visitor enters on a 90-day tourist visa but must
stay for an emergency medical reason, the system should track
it.
All of this information will become part of a foreign visitor's ongoing travel record, so their correct information can follow them wherever they go.
The information will be made available
to inspectors, agents, consular officials and others with a true
need to know.
Law enforcement will also have access to the information.
The National Immigration Forum praised the department for moving towards a program that applies to foreign visitors, students, travelers, and immigrants across the board, and not just to certain immigrants from certain countries. But the forum's deputy director, Angela Kelley, warned, "The DHS must be even-handed in its application and not single out certain communities."
Kelley underscored the need for an accurate, timely and fully funded effort to implement the ambitious plan. "With 30 million non-immigrant entries into the country each year, 23 million of them with visas, sorting the information gathered upon entry and exit and making sure it is accurate will be the greatest challenge facing the program," Kelley said.
"The data they collect and share with our nation's gatekeepers must be accurate and on-time," she said. "If every Jose Lopez or Omar Said is tripped up by the system because one Jose Lopez or one Omar Said is on a watch list, we could be in for a disaster. The Immigration and Naturalization Service had a horrible track-record on such matters; let's hope the DHS does better."
Ibish of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee said it was difficult to say at this stage how the DHS would use the new program. But he added, "It is definitely an improvement on the Special Registration program, which discriminated against people from certain countries."
The old program, Ibish said, was problematic because it was not clear whether it intended to "improve national security or to enforce immigration laws." The program, he said, allowed some immigration officials to turn it into "a gotcha" game against immigrations from certain nations.