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Changes to the Special Registration Program Essentially, the Special Registration Program applies to all male nonimmigrants over the age of 16 from the following countries, (which are colloquially referred to as “List 26 Countries”): Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Kuwait, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Eritrea, Lebanon, Morocco, North Korea, Oman, Qatar, Somalia, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan and Syria. Conversely, Special Registration does not apply to females or to individuals who are not in nonimmigrant status, such as parolees, permanent residents, U.S. citizens, asylees, undocumented aliens, etc. This Program has come under increasing attack owing to three (3) primary reasons: 1) it profiles and singles out in a discriminatory fashion male foreign national nonimmigrants drawn largely from List 26 Countries rather than creating an even-handed, across-the-board registration system; 2) in its implementation, it has been used as a general, broad-brush enforcement tool for the removal of “illegal” aliens rather than as a focused initiative aimed specifically at the enhancement of security; and 3) it has proven to be quite ineffectual in identifying security threats to this country as evidenced by the fact that there is not a single reported case of a registrant who has been deemed to be a security risk to the United States. (The U.S. Government, though, continues to maintain the this Program is an effective and appropriate security measure.) On December 1, 2003, the U.S. Government published an Interim Rule announcing certain revisions to the Special Registration Program. In summary form, the December 2003 revisions contain the following provisions: First, the December 1st announcement does NOT terminate the Special Registration Program. Rather, the Interim Rule merely amends the Special Registration Program in certain limited and specified manners, largely related to the annual and 30-day registration obligations. Second, the single and most immediate change articulated in the Interim Rule is to suspend indefinitely the 30-day and annual interview and registration requirements. Therefore, individuals subject to Special Registration requirements after December 2nd do not need to appear at Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) District Offices for annual registration, nor is there any further requirement to appear for follow-up registration within 30-40 days after a return to the United States following a trip abroad. Third, this announcement, though, does not terminate the Special Registration Program in its entirety. Failure to appear at District Offices in fulfillment of Special Registration requirements incurred prior to December 2, 2003, will continue to constitute a removable offense – i.e., a violation of immigration laws so as to potentially subject the offending foreign national to removal (i.e., deportation). Furthermore, this Interim Rule does not create in any manner an amnesty program for those who violated their Special Registration obligations prior to December 2003. These individuals will still be considered as violating a key condition of their residence in the United States. Fourth, it is critically important to understand that individuals subject to Special Registration need to fulfill these requirements both upon entry to and departure from the United States. This means that subject foreign nationals need to exit only through designated exit points and to fulfill all registration requirements upon departure from the United States, including an appearance before a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer. As a practical matter, this ongoing registration requirement can be time consuming and, at times, highly inconvenient to fulfill, but the responsibility for compliance is firmly and solely on nonimmigrant males from List 26 countries. Fifth, also left intact are the requirements that individuals subject to Special Registration must continue to register changes in their home address, change of employer and/or change of educational institution within 10 days or be found to be in violation of our immigration laws. Students and exchange visitors, however, do not need to separately register their change in address and/or educational institutions if they timely inform the educational institution since such changes will be picked up in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) system. However, if the institution fails to document the changes, the student or exchange visitor can be found to be in non-compliance with the Special Registration obligations. As a result, it is highly recommended that even students and exchange visitors ensure that the SEVIS system reflects changes in address and/or educational institutions AND fill out the AR-11 SR form to ensure that they are in compliance with the Special Registration requirements. Sixth, it is important to note that the U.S. Government still has the right on a case-by-case basis to summon foreign nationals to special register. In short, the new rule simply suspends indefinitely the in-country, blanket registration program. The Government can still notify selected individuals to appear for registration and conceivably could initiate a removal proceeding if the foreign national is not residing at his/her registered residence. Seventh, to some extent, this dilution of the current Special Registration Program becomes moot with the announced initiation of the USA VISIT Program, which is scheduled to be implemented in the first half of 2004. Essentially, this new program will represent a sustained effort to utilize a vastly expanded set of biometric markers and advanced technology to register and monitor all foreign nationals arriving to the United States.
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Aronson & Associates, P.A. |