January 2003

In August 2002, the Bush Administration began to issue a series of regulations to create a Special Registration Program requiring registration with the BCIS of migrants from select countries – almost all from the Middle East and North Africa – if the alien was going to remain in the country for 30 or more days. Special Registration builds on a somewhat broader program requiring fingerprinting of certain migrants upon entry, and on the goal of creating a comprehensive exit-entry system by 2005.

The Special Registration program mandates that, by December 16, 2002, aliens from Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Syrian, and Libya must register with the BCIS if they are male, over 16 years of age, and were inspected and last admitted to the U.S. as nonimmigrants on or before September 10, 2002. Additionally, similarly situated migrants from Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Eritrea, Lebanon, Morocco, North Korea, Oman, Qatar, Somalia, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen must register by January 10, 2003, migrants from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia will have to register by February 21, 2003, and migrants from Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Kuwait, and Jordan will have to register between February 24 and March 28, 2003.

The registration system exempts asylees and asylum seekers, as well as US citizens, Lawful Permanent Residents, and foreign government officials. Refugees should not have to register since they do not enter as nonimmigrants.

Under current law, since 1952 every alien in the US for 30 days or more must register and inform the Attorney General of any change of address in writing within 10 days. Aliens who do not do this are removable. However, the BCIS has not enforced this provision, and has failed to enter change of address cards for tens (or, more likely, hundreds) of thousands of aliens over the years, throwing many of them away.

According to press reports, hundreds of Iranians have been detained in LA for visa violations. Between 10 and 35 are said to be Iranian Jews – many of them being Iranians from Israel. BCIS is accused of treating the detainees extremely badly, and of implementing the regulations in an inconsistent manner in different locations. The second round of registration, completed January 10, 2003, is believed to have gone more smoothly, with fewer detentions and arrests reported. However, some have questioned this and detailed analysis of the process is currently underway.

Additionally, BCIS is providing a second chance for migrants from the first two groups who failed to register, to do so without penalty between January 27th and February 7th.

For more information on the Special Registration Program, please click on the following link to access materials prepared by the American Immigration Law Foundation:
http://www.aila.org/contentViewer.aspx?bc=10,1431,2170