Removing the stigma

Memphis Commercial Appeal ^ | 12/04/03 | Editorial

[Holly_P]

THE BUSH administration is scrapping an inflexible and overly officious program it unleashed early in the war on terrorism. Men and boys who are visiting the United States from 25 mainly Arab and primarily Muslim countries no longer have to register annually with the Department of Homeland Security.

At home, the special registration, which required mug shots, fingerprinting and demands for personal information, alienated and humiliated law-abiding visitors. Visitors who complied with the program were subject to arrest and deportation for relatively minor visa violations.

There are horror stories of frightened Muslim males going into hiding or seeking asylum in Canada. The program badly shook communities of immigrants from the Middle East who believed, with some justice, the U.S. government was targeting them.

Abroad, the program helped discredit the United States because it confirmed suspicions in conspiracy-minded Arab communities that President Bush's war on terror was really a war on Arabs and Islam. It almost certainly discouraged U.S. travel by people we generally want to come here - family members, students, professionals, people on business.

Some 83,000 visitors registered with the immigration service, now part of the Homeland Security Department; 14,000 were placed in deportation proceedings; and 2,870 were detained, of whom 23 remain in custody.

Supporters of the program argue that the visa violators and 143 suspected criminals it turned up alone justified it. But if those were the government's goals, the program should have targeted much larger immigrant communities with much greater numbers of illegal members.

Had it continued, the program likely would have swept up even more minor violators. A little publicized provision of the program required visitors still in the country a year later to re-register with the federal government.

An immigration lawyer told The Washington Post: "Most people, especially foreign visitors, don't read the Federal Register when they wake up in the morning. People are being set up to fail."

Homeland Security officials now say they have better ways to track immigrants and visitors. The verdict on the registration program: It needlessly terrified a lot of people and wasted government time and money that could have been better spent elsewhere.

[Cicero]

That's the "verdict"? Who was the judge and jury?

[putupon]

Supporters of the program argue that the visa violators and
143 suspected criminals it turned up alone justified it.

Do the math.

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