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Pakistanis fleeing to Canada as registration deadline nears
By Emily Bazar -- Bee Capitol Bureau
Sacramento Bee
-Thursday, March 20, 2003
Hundreds of Pakistani families from California to New York are fleeing to Canada, fearful that they would be jailed or deported if they complied with an end-of-week deadline to register with the federal government.
Friday's deadline for men from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia has spurred an exodus, primarily on the East Coast, that has inundated refugee relief organizations in Vermont, New York and elsewhere.
Fewer West Coast immigrants have opted to leave, but Pakistanis in California remain fearful that they will be detained after being fingerprinted, photographed and questioned by immigration officials. The start of war with Iraq on Wednesday only made things worse.
"Everyone in line (for registration) is anxious," said Vivek Mittal, program coordinator for the Alliance of South Asians Taking Action, an advocacy group that's monitoring the registration process in San Francisco and San Jose.
New wartime policies revealed this week also have fueled anxiety. Federal officials announced Tuesday that asylum applicants from countries with suspected terrorist ties will be jailed until their asylum cases are decided, a process that can take months or years.
The policy apparently pertains to new asylum applicants, not those with pending cases. Asylum applicants are people fleeing persecution in their home countries.
Also, Attorney General John Ashcroft has signed an order giving FBI agents and U.S. marshals authority to arrest people on immigration violations, Associated Press reported Wednesday.
"They (Pakistanis) want to follow the law. But at the same time, the war is an additional burden on their minds," said Samina Faheem, national coordinator for the American Muslim Alliance, who is based in the Bay Area. "People are terrified."
Men from Pakistan make up the largest group selected for special registration, said James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute. He estimates that 22,000 Pakistanis and about 12,000 Saudis fall under special registration.
The Sept. 11, 2001 attacks spurred the registration process, which has been billed by the federal government as an important anti-terrorism measure.
Under the policy, men at least 16 years old from certain countries, mostly in the Middle East and North Africa, must show up at their local immigration office to register.
Green-card holders, U.S. citizens, diplomats and people who have been granted political asylum are not required to register.
Men from 18 countries already have faced registration deadlines. The next deadline is April 25 and applies to men from Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan and Kuwait.
Immigrant and civil-rights activists have attacked the registration process because hundreds of men were arrested, detained and forced into deportation proceedings when they appeared for registration.
As of March 4, 1,745 men had been detained nationwide through special registration, with 101 still in custody, said Ron Rogers, spokesman for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Most didn't have current visas, although some had already submitted applications to become legal, permanent residents.
To avoid the same fate, hundreds of Pakistanis who aren't in the country legally are seeking asylum in Canada. They have attempted to cross the border in New York and Vermont, overwhelming Canadian immigration officials, who arranged later appointments for the asylum seekers.
Between Jan. 30 and March 5, 432 asylum seekers were returned to the United States to wait for their appointments. Of them, 133 were detained by U.S. immigration officials, said Patrick Giantonio, director of Vermont Refugee Assistance.
Faiz Rehman, president of the National Council of Pakistani Americans, said Californians were among the Pakistanis he visited at a refugee shelter in Buffalo.
He estimates that so far, about 3,000 Pakistanis have left for Canada, about 600 families have returned to Pakistan and about 600 people are staying in shelters near the Canadian border as they apply for asylum.
Faheem said the majority of California's Pakistani population is more established and professional, so they are less likely to flee or have problems with registration. The larger East Coast population of Pakistanis tends to be blue collar, she said, and less likely to be in the country legally.
Volunteers from the Alliance of South Asians Taking Action -- the Bay Area advocacy group that battles discrimination and violence against South Asians -- will monitor the immigration offices in San Francisco and San Jose all week, signing Pakistanis in before they register and checking them off when they're through.
Mittal said about 20 Pakistanis and Saudi Arabians have been detained so far in the Bay Area.
No problems have been reported in Sacramento, said Shahid Chaudhry, the American Muslim Alliance's area coordinator.
But Zogby warned that although the process seems to be running smoothly in some places, it's too early to draw conclusions.
"We will not know until the last minute of deadline day exactly where we are," he said.
The Bee's Emily Bazar can be reached at (916) 321-1016 or ebazar@sacbee.com <mailto:ebazar@sacbee.com>
[Ms. Samina Faheem, the former National Coordinator of the American Muslim Alliance and Coordinator of the AMA/PADF Hotline is now the Executive Director of the American Muslim Voice.]
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