Fri, Jan. 10, 2003

Eight Bay Area visitors reported detained at INS office in S.F.
HUNDREDS PROTEST SPECIAL REGISTRATION AT SAN JOSE, SAN FRANCISCO INS OFFICES

By Jessie Mangaliman and Matthai Chakko Kuruvila
Mercury News

At least eight male Bay Area visitors from mostly Middle Eastern and African countries have been reportedly detained at the INS office in San Francisco during the latest round of special immigrant registrations that ended Friday.

A civil rights group gave the estimate at the conclusion of the second phase of a nationwide program prompted by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that requires visitors from primarily Muslim countries to register and be fingerprinted so that the government can monitor their movements.

Outside the San Francisco Immigration and Naturalization Service office, about 400 people decried the detentions during an afternoon rally, the largest Bay Area protest thus far of INS special registration policies. As immigrants from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia prepare to register beginning Monday, many among Friday's gathering evoked the memories of World War II, when 120,000 Japanese and Japanese-Americans were interned in camps, as were some Germans and Italians.

``For 60 years since we were in the camps, we thought the American government had learned to not take away people's civil liberties during a time of crisis,'' said Chizu Iiyama, 81, who was interned in the Topaz Camp in Utah but now lives in El Cerrito. ``It's shocking for us that they're doing somewhat the same thing.''

Activists and attorneys say many of those detained have been approved for green cards but are in limbo only because of notoriously long backlogs by the INS. They also criticize the INS for failing to effectively publicize -- or notify immigrant groups -- of the registration policies.But government officials and others have defended the registration process, calling it a necessary security measure since the attacks. Hundreds have been detained, many for overstaying their visas.INS officials say they are merely fulfilling a 1996 congressional mandate to develop an entry-exit system that would track all immigrants here as visitors -- on work, tourist and student visas.

And while the program has thus far mostly focused on Muslim and Middle Eastern immigrants, they vow that the program will encompass all immigrant groups by 2005.Sharon Rummery, a spokeswoman for the San Francisco INS office, said there's a reason that certain countries are initially being targeted.

``These are countries where they harbor terrorists, where Al-Qaida resides or where there are other national security concerns,'' she said.Bay Area activists said based on their monitoring of the INS office in San Francisco, eight visitors were detained, which they consider a conservative number.Sources at the INS office in San Jose said there were no known detentions there.

Department of Justice spokesman Jorge Martinez told the Associated Press that at least 400 people had been detained in California as of last week.Officials with the Department of Justice said most of those detained in the first round of registrations that ended Dec. 16 have been released, except for a handful of visitors who were found to have criminal records. At least two dozen men were reportedly detained in the Bay Area last month.The registration program is aimed at visitors 16 years or older who are in the United States on temporary visas from certain designated countries.

Last month, visitors from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan and Syria were required to register. Friday's deadline was for visitors from Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Eritrea, Lebanon, Morocco, North Korea, Oman, Qatar, Somalia, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.Registration of male visitors from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia begins Monday and ends Feb. 21.``No community should go through this,'' said Anabel Ibanez, one of the San Jose protesters and organizing director for the South Bay Labor Council.

``So today it's one group. Who's next tomorrow?''Ibanez and about 30 others staged a quiet protest outside the INS office in San Jose, while in San Francisco, hundreds cheered speakers who denounced the registration program as a civil rights violation.

Immigrants interviewed Friday expressed their shock at the process.``I understand what the government is trying to do, but at the same time I know it upsets many people,'' said San Jose resident Eyob Mashio, 39, a parking attendant from Eritrea who registered Friday afternoon.``I've got nothing to hide.''

Adel Khammassi came to the United States from Tunisia in March 2000 on a tourist visa. The San Francisco cabdriver received a one-year extension after that, but his visa expired.

His visa problems landed him in an INS jail this summer. But he went home Friday after registering without incident.``I'm not a criminal,'' said Khammassi, 30. ``I'm not the enemy. I'm not a terrorist . . . we came to this country for a better life, for a better future.'

'Contact Jessie Mangaliman at jmangaliman@sjmercury.com or (408) 920-5794 and Matthai Chakko Kuruvila at mkuruvila@sjmercury.com or (510) 790-7316.