U.S. Refugee Policy Criticized : Immigration: Amnesty International, meeting in L.A., says federal and state governments undermine respect for human rights.

A U. S. Border Patrol agent in Arizona is accused of first-degree murder for allegedly shooting an illegal Mexican immigrant in the back and not reporting it to his superiors.

Women at INS detention centers in New York City complain to relief groups of being separated from their husbands and forced to dress and undress in front of security guards.

Haitian refugees denied asylum in the United States are returned to their troubled homeland, where some fear for their lives after being photographed and fingerprinted by authorities.

The three examples were among many cited Saturday in Los Angeles during a continuing discussion among human rights advocates of alleged abuses relating to refugee and immigration practices in the United States.

“It is our belief that at the same time as the U.S. government proclaims its commitment to promoting human rights around the world, that same government and a large number of your state authorities are by their actions undermining respect for human rights,” said Ian Martin, secretary general of Amnesty International, in an address to the group.

The worldwide human rights organization, holding its national meeting in downtown Los Angeles, has made the U.S. record on refugees a major focus of the three-day session, which concludes today.

It is the first time Amnesty International has held its annual gathering here. Members marched Saturday afternoon from Pershing Square to City Hall to protest human rights abuses by security forces around the world and kicked off the session Friday by releasing a highly critical report on alleged police brutality by Los Angeles city police and county sheriff’s deputies.

Panel discussions Saturday delved into a wide range of issues, from human rights violations against homosexuals and women to a how-to session on “aggressive tactics” against capital punishment. The discussion on refugee and immigration rights, “Keeping Refugees in Their Place: Away from the Developed World,” criticized the United States for “closing its doors more tightly” while expecting poorer nations to accommodate the estimated 20 million refugees worldwide.

“There is a lot of anti-foreigner feeling in this country,” said Maryam Namazic, who works with asylum-seekers in New York City and who participated on the panel.

Namazic accused the U.S. government of making asylum procedures so difficult and taxing--and in some cases humiliating--that would-be refugees are “worn down” and give up.

“It is intended as a deterrent,” she said about complicated application requirements, lack of privacy and difficult living conditions.

Namazic’s panel, like the other workshops and plenary sessions, made no secret of its subjectivity. Government officials were not invited to defend their record or refute allegations of abuse and incompetence.

The annual session, Amnesty International officials say, is not about measured debate; it is about revving up the troops, getting excited about human rights and preparing for another year of battle--often before an unsympathetic American public.

“The idea of this is to get together and cheer each other along to keep going at it,” said Jack Healey, executive director of Amnesty International U.S.A., one of 55 member groups worldwide.

At the panel on refugees, that translated into moderator Nicholas Rizza hawking position papers on the Haitian refugee crisis. Rizza told several hundred members that the papers would help them defend Amnesty International when debating the U.S. response, which the organization has strongly denounced as an “exercise in political cynicism.”

The refugee crisis was prompted by the military overthrow last September of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Tens of thousands of fleeing Haitians were intercepted by Coast Guard vessels and some of them were forcibly returned to Haiti.

In his opening remarks, Martin described the U.S. government’s handling of the crisis as a “human rights scandal” and complained that his group has been denied access to a holding camp for Haitians at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

Cheryl Little, an attorney who last year unsuccessfully challenged the U.S. interdiction policy, said the situation has become worse. She criticized a decision last month by the Bush Administration to repatriate refugees who were intercepted at sea by the Coast Guard while fleeing the poverty-stricken Caribbean nation.

In giving the order, Bush said he was convinced that Haitians “are not being physically oppressed,” but Little said the order has emboldened Haitian military leaders and convinced other Haitians that the United States does not care if democracy is restored there.

Discussion of refugee problems also touched upon more traditional immigration concerns in the United States, including patrolling the Mexico border.

Roberto Martinez, national director of the U.S.-Mexico Border Project for the American Friends Service Committee, told of incidents involving the alleged rape and mistreatment of immigrants held in U.S. detention centers. He also discussed attacks on illegal immigrants in San Diego County by hate groups, including white supremacists.

“It is a national scandal,” he said. “We have to create a national awareness of the human and civil rights violations occurring on the border today.”

More than 200 Amnesty International members and supporters marched through downtown streets to City Hall.

“All of us want to help if we only had a way,” said Lee Purcell, 53, of Santa Fe, N.M., who carried a life-size cutout that represented a political protester who has disappeared in Romania. “An event like this says: ‘Yes, there is a way, and we can get involved.’ ”

Staff writer Eric Lichtblau contributed to this story.