New Plan To Fingerprint U.S. Visitors
Ashcroft invokes registration law already on books

June 5, 2002
By Pete Williams

NBC News has learned that the Justice Department has a new plan to require thousands of visitors to this country to be registered and fingerprinted by the government. NBC's Pete Williams reports.
WASHINGTON, June 4 —  The Justice Department has a new plan to require thousands of visitors to the United States to be registered and fingerprinted by the government, NBC News has learned.
   
 U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL John Ashcroft briefed lawmakers Tuesday on his plan to invoke a little-used law that requires potentially high-risk visitors to the United States — mostly men — to register and be fingerprinted.

 Though such a requirement has been on the books for decades, federal rules now give almost all visitors a waiver. But NBC News has learned that concern since Sept. 11 about the lack of records on tourists, students and other visitors has prompted the attorney general to recommend registration for some potentially high-risk visitors who plan to stay at least a month. About 100,000 visitors could be affected.

 The new plan would apply to visitors from Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria — countries already listed as terrorist states — but also from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Those visitors would have to fill out a registration form and allow inspectors with the Immigration and Naturalization Service to take their fingerprints and photographs if they plan to stay in the country for 30 days or more.

 Under current rules, only visitors from four countries — Iraq, Iran, Libya and Sudan — must go through that process the moment they arrive.

 Groups that represent immigrants say the new rules are an unnecessary intrusion.
 “This is a good security measure if it’s applied to everyone, but not just a certain group of Middle Eastern countries or Muslim countries,” said Nihad Awwad of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

 Alien registration laws date to the 1940s, when they applied to millions of foreign visitors. But after World War II, as immigration swelled and security worries faded, registration requirements gradually lapsed.

 The rules that apply to Iraq, Iran, Libya and Sudan were invoked after the Gulf War, as concerns grew about overseas terror coming home.

 Immigration lawyers say they’ll urge the Justice Department to narrow the scope of the new rules before they go into effect.

http://msnbc.com/news/761873.asp