US immigration officials have dropped parts of a contentious registration programme for Muslim and Arab men, but critics note that thousands are still being deported and many others will face onerous screening procedures when they travel.

The programme dates back to November 2002, when the Justice Department started requiring all male non-citizens over age 16 from any of 21 countries deemed to have terrorist links to register with the Immigration and Naturalisation Service, now a division of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The process entails being interviewed, photographed and fingerprinted, or facing possible criminal prosecution. Many of those who have complied said the ordeal took several days, during which time they were held in unheated detention cells without any way to communicate with their families.

Earlier this month, officials said that some 83,000 people who had already registered once would not be automatically required to return for periodic follow-up interviews, as under the old rules. But they would still have to notify the DHS of any change of address, employment or educational institution within 10 days of the change.

In addition, the planned deportations of at least 13,000 people who were found during the initial registration to have committed immigration violations are still going forward.

"The Department of Homeland Security will utilise a more tailored system that is individual-specific rather than the broad categories by geography," said Asa Hutchinson, the department's undersecretary - meaning that DHS retains the right to demand that certain people return for follow-up registration, on little more than a week's notice.

Programmes not effective

Civil liberties and Arab American groups welcomed the rule changes, but argue that the programme remains fundamentally biased, and is not working in any case, since it has not led to a single terrorist prosecution.

"What we've learned is that special registration, like all other programmes introduced after 9/11 that have been geared to make us safer, have not been focusing on the right area; they've been targeting immigrants," said Julia Hendrix of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA).

"Intelligence experts have told us that these programmes are not effective - in fact, it's the absolute reverse," Hendrix told IPS .

"Families have been torn apart, fathers, brothers, uncles taken away. It's been extremely disruptive to the communities ... this violates the civil liberties of immigrants, and we'd like to see it ended totally," she added.

The Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee points out that those subject to the programme will still be required to submit to exit interviews if they travel abroad, even though DHS offices in airports are not always open or efficiently managed - which could force travellers to either violate the exit interview requirement or abandon their trips.

Other persistent problems include the failure of immigration authorities to explain the programme's requirements to the public, advocates say.

"A lot of people in the community took (the rule change) as an end to special registration, when this was not the case," said Radiah Ahmed of the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations. "We wish there had been more outreach."

"The fear is still there," she added. "So many people know someone who was detained or deported."

Dire consequences

The crackdown following the Sept 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon has also had dire consequences for Arab and Muslim men just passing through the United States.

Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian engineer, was detained by US authorities on Sept 26, 2002 during a stop-over in New York, as he was returning from a family vacation in Tunisia.

After days of interrogation, during which he was denied access to a lawyer because he "was not an American citizen", Arar was shackled and put on plane to Syria - where he had not been since he was 17 years old.

He was accused of having links to the al-Qaeda terrorist group, although officials refused to detail any evidence they had against him, and have never formally charged him with a crime.

Arar, who says he plans to sue the US government, says he was held and tortured in Syria for more than 10 months, until he finally signed a "confession" and was allowed to return to his home in Ottawa.

"I describe my cell in Syria as a grave because it was just three feet wide, six feet long, seven feet high and unlit," Arar recalled in a commentary published Dec 10 by the Los Angeles Times .

"While I was there I sometimes felt on the verge of death after beatings with a black electrical cable about two inches thick. They mostly aimed for my palms but sometimes missed and hit my wrists. Other times, I was left alone in a special 'waiting room' within earshot of others' screams.

"I want to know why the United States sent me to one of the seven countries that the (George W) Bush administration has designated a sponsor of state terrorism - and that President Bush singled out just last month as a country that tortures its own people."

"And I want to know why the Canadian government sent information on me to the United States and what the nature of that information was."

"I need to know why this happened to me," Arar wrote. "My priority is to clear my name, get to the bottom of the case and make sure this does not happen to anyone else again."

Lawsuits

Arar is not the only one turning to the court system for justice. Several activist groups have brought lawsuits to halt the special registration programme, as well as the USA Patriot Act, a sweeping law passed shortly after 9/11 that greatly expanded the government's domestic spying powers.

In July, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a suit on behalf of the Muslim Community Association of Ann Arbor in the state of Michigan and five other nonprofit groups, challenging provisions of the Patriot Act.

These sections allow federal agents to seize records on a person's reading habits, religious affiliations, Internet surfing and other activities without a warrant, without showing probable cause and without ever informing people of the searches.

Another lawsuit, led by the California-based Centre for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, seeks to block new detentions under the registration programme and to prevent the deportation of immigrants who may be eligible to legalise their status.

The Centre, and several other advocacy groups, brought the suit after the mass arrests last December of hundreds of mostly Iranian immigrants who had come forward to register with authorities in Los Angeles. The majority were detained for overstaying their visas. - IPS