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INS REGISTRATION DEADLINES
EXTENDED
CURT ANDERSON, Associated Press, 2/15/03
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WASHINGTON (AP) - Deadlines for thousands of male visitors from
seven mainly Muslim countries to register with U.S. immigration
authorities were extended one month Friday by the Justice
Department.
About 15,000 males age 16 or older from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan
will have until March 21 to be fingerprinted, photographed and show
certain documents at local Immigration and Naturalization Service
offices. The previous deadline was Feb. 21.
Another group of about 19,000 from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Egypt,
Jordan and Kuwait will have from Feb. 24 to April 25 to register,
four weeks beyond the original March 28 deadline…
Hodan Hassan, spokeswoman for the Council on American-Islamic
relations, said large-scale detentions of visitors from these
countries have not occurred since December but that many Muslims
still regard the program as discriminatory and ineffective in
capturing terrorists.
"There's still a lot of confusion and uncertainty about who
applies. It still stigmatizes the American Muslim community,"
she said…
Deadlines have already passed for people from Iraq, Iran, Libya,
Sudan, Syria - all considered by the United States to be state
sponsors of terrorism - as well as those from Afghanistan, Algeria,
Bahrain, Eritrea, Lebanon, Morocco, North Korea, Oman, Qatar,
Somalia, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
A grace period given to visitors from the 18 countries who missed an
earlier deadline expired Feb. 7. Martinez said an additional 1,850
men and boys registered in that period, during which no penalties
were assessed.
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