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US immigration registration

Grace period for those missing deadlines

AP, Washington
Males age 16 and older from 18 countries who may have missed earlier deadlines to register with US immigration authorities will get another chance to do so without fear of penalty, the government announced Thursday.
The decision to provide a grace period, from January 27 to February 7, comes as the Immigration and Naturalization Service expanded the registration programme to add men and boys from Indonesia, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait and Bangladesh. The post-Sept. 11 programme has drawn strenuous protests as too harsh.
The grace period will apply to long-term male visitors from five countries--Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan and Syria--who missed a Dec. 16
deadline, according to an INS notice published Thursday in the Federal Register.
The extra time also will apply to those from Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Eritrea, Lebanon, Morocco, North Korea, Oman, Qatar, Somalia, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen who missed a January 10 deadline.
INS officials believe fear of arrest or deportation, lack of knowledge about the programme and large crowds at local offices might have prevented many of the affected people from registering earlier.
Inclusion of the five latest countries in the programme will affect thousands more long-term male visitors to the United States, the
largest group since the programme began last fall, officials said.
Under a programme enacted by Congress in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, males 16 and older from 25 countries are required to visit local INS offices to be photographed and fingerprinted and show certain documents. Some countries included are considered potential havens for terrorists.
Different deadlines have been imposed for different countries. The biggest group to this point is the 14,000 men and boys from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan who must register by February 21.
Hundreds of people, mainly Iranians, were detained in Southern California last month when the registration deadline arrived for the
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first group of visa holders. That prompted angry demonstrations and a lawsuit against the federal government.
Most were detained because their visas had expired and were released pending a hearing on their cases.
Since those detentions, the Justice Department has embarked on a more intensive campaign to justify the programme and ensure that affected people get notified. The registration is part of a broader INS plan to set up, by 2005, a comprehensive system detailing who is entering, leaving and staying in the United States.
Long-term visitors to the United States from Indonesia, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait and Bangladesh will have from February 24 to March 28 to register at local INS offices. This does not affect US citizens, diplomats, refugees or permanent resident aliens--those holding ``green cards.''
Most of those required to register are in the United States as students or business travelers or are visiting relatives.
Immigration lawyers say many people are afraid to come forward, in part because of an INS backlog that can snarl their paperwork and make them vulnerable to deportation if their visas expire while they are awaiting a final outcome of their cases.
``In light of the mass, warrantless arrests, which we believe to be illegal, it is difficult for us to recommend, in good faith, for people to come forward to register,'' Pete Schey, an attorney for several immigrants in California, said earlier this month.