INS Misses Mark in Nationwide Arrests

Over the last several weeks, Immigration and Naturalization Service officials in Los Angeles and nationwide have been arresting hundreds of men who have voluntarily appeared at local INS offices.

The asserted authority for the arrests stems from recent Justice Department regulations. Though how much the Constitution’s equal protection provisions refer to selective, nationality-based arrests of noncitizens may be open to question, that there are some protections is unequivocal.

The Justice regulations require male citizens of some countries -- primarily from the Middle East, Near East and Africa -- who entered the United States before Sept. 11, 2002, to appear at local INS offices to be fingerprinted, photographed and questioned about their activities in the United States. With the exception of North Korea, all of the designated countries are predominantly Muslim. The requirement applies only to men who traveled to the U.S. on nonimmigrant visas, such as tourist or student visas.

Who is subject to the special INS requirement seems to have been guided more by political concerns than by concerns regarding how best to assure national security.

For example, Egyptians, the nationality of lead Sept. 11 hijacker Mohamed Atta, are not required to report to INS offices. Citizens of Kuwait, where U.S. troops preparing for a possible war with Iraq have come under attack by locals, also are exempt. Citizens of Saudi Arabia, which produced most of the Sept. 11 hijackers, were only belatedly added to the list. Egypt, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are key U.S. government allies.

If we assume that the Justice Department requirements are to protect national security, how can we reconcile the decisions to exempt Egyptians and Kuwaitis and the attempt to conceal and delay the inclusion of Saudi citizens?

Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft says terrorist cells are present in the U.S. and planning new attacks. Does the Justice Department have information that Egyptians and Kuwaitis pose a lesser threat than Iranians?

And how can the exemption of French and British citizens be justified? Does the Justice Department have information that French citizen Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person whom the U.S. has formally accused of being a Sept. 11 co-conspirator, or British citizen Richard Reid, the failed airplane shoe bomber, are the only European citizens who pose a threat to U.S. national security?

The ineffective and chaotic manner in which the program is being implemented is an indication that neither the Justice Department nor the INS believes it to be important to national security.

Many of the men arrested by the INS in Los Angeles have petitions pending with the INS to legalize their status; these petitions include their home addresses. If the INS had reason to believe that a particular person posed some risk, officials could go to his home and arrest him.

Arresting these men as they voluntarily appear at INS offices serves no purpose other than to spread more fear into the affected communities. By not using discretion regarding whom to arrest, the INS has wasted resources that should instead be used to identify those who may actually pose a threat to public safety.

As it is, Atta, Moussaoui and Reid would not be arrested under the ridiculous and unfair guidelines that Justice and the INS are using.

INS resources would better be focused on investigating and identifying people whose actions or personal background might threaten public safety. National security is not furthered by assembly-line, nationality-based arrests and deportations.