By Anne Burt
The Immigration and Naturalization Service now has access to track the movement of temporary male visitors in the United States from 25 countries where Al-Qaida and other terrorist organizations are believed to exist.
Last week, the INS, now the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, began registering male visitors from Indonesia, Kuwait, Jordan, Egypt and Bangladesh - the last group to be registered after men from more than 25 countries were indexed in the last six months.
The program targets Middle Eastern Muslims and North Koreans.
Males 16 or older from the listed nations who entered the United States before Oct. 1, 2002 must register with a local BCIS office to avoid arrest or deportation. They must provide such things as fingerprints, photos and travel plans.
'This information enables the government to verify that such a person is in the United States on a temporary visa and is doing what he said he would be doing and living where he said he would live,' said Nina Pruneda, spokeswoman for the BCIS.
Pruneda gave three reasons for the registration: to create a database to run fingerprint checks for wanted criminals and terrorists, to enable the government to know when an individual overstays his visa, and to verify temporary visa holders are doing what they said they would be doing while in the United States.
Asif Saberi, president of the Muslim Forum of Utah, said the face value of the registration program seems unfair. Saberi said he realizes safety procedures changed since 9-11, but the Muslims he knows were appalled that other Muslims would intentionally kill so many people.
'Security after 9-11 has resulted in measures not completely explained to people,' Saberi said. 'And that breeds fear.'
Saberi said he feels the best remedy for fear is educating people. He said he has not seen that happen with this new registration program.
BYU student Ahmad Kareh, 21, a senior marketing student from Jordan who came to BYU in 1999, said BYU''s International Office sent him an email about the registration. Kareh and several other BYU students went to a BCIS office in the Salt Lake area with BYU''s international student advisor Theodore Okawa. They arrived at 7 a.m. and left at 1 p.m.
The BCIS took information Kareh said he felt was not necessary, like credit card numbers and information about his family. Kareh said the process takes a couple of hours for each person.
His experience was better then most, said Kareh, because Okawa made an appointment for the BYU students and came with them.
'But they (the BCIS) normally don''t take appointments,' Kareh said. 'People go there and if they are lucky they get in - if not, they come back tomorrow. I found it very inconvenient. I don''t know why we need to do it.'
Okawa took six groups to register at the BCIS office.
'There was a great fear initially of getting locked up because of the number of students ... who went to complete registration and were detained by the INS,' Okawa said.
One BYU student narrowly escaped detainment while registering.
Okawa explained all international students must take 12 credit hours - unless they are here for their first semester. He said when the BCIS discovered this student enrolled for less then 12 credit hours they almost took him away.
As of Mar. 25, Pruneda said 2,034 people were detained of the 110,534 who registered with the BCIS offices nationwide. Pruneda said although she cannot provide specifics, all people arrested violated immigration laws.
Okawa said the registration policy did not surprise him. Okawa recalled when Japanese Americans, actual American citizens, were required to register during World War II.
'I come from a racial group who has gone through injustices at the hand of the United States government,' said Okawa, a Japanese American. 'I am doing my best to alleviate the chances of them having a bitter experience in the United States.'