INS profiling some
young Mideast men

WASHINGTON – If you're a Syrian man between 18 and 46 and want to visit the U.S., expect to be singled out for additional questioning by immigration inspectors.

Along with photographing and fingerprinting, you will be subjected to a "thorough background check," U.S. officials say – even if you come up clean in searches of criminal and terrorist databases.

And if you hold an M-1 visa to attend a flight school here, you may be denied entry – no matter how valid your paperwork. If you're already enrolled, you may be asked to leave.

Nearly nine months after America was systematically attacked by young Arab men, the Justice Department has relaxed rules against immigration inspectors profiling certain Arab visitors considered "high national-security risks," officials say.

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New rules adopted Tuesday also give inspectors authority to revoke visas of high-risk Arab nationals taking flying lessons here.

The changes – which stop short of detaining suspicious Arab visitors – come amid a flurry of criticism over the department's tepid response to pre-Sept. 11 tips that Arab nationals tied to al-Qaida were flocking to U.S. flight schools.

After Sept. 11, Immigration and Naturalization Service agents complained that headquarters continued to limit their ability to weed out suspicious foreign visitors who fit the terrorist profile, even ones who entered the U.S. on visas to attend flight schools. They also worried about visa loopholes.

Now Attorney General John Ashcroft has given INS agents wider latitude to question some Arab visitors, officials told WorldNetDaily, while closing some loopholes.

The most controversial change, one that has not been publicly announced, is a relaxation of rules against profiling – a hot-button political issue. Agents now have the authority to single out for questioning mostly Mideast visitors who fit a high-risk profile based on age, gender and other markers, officials say.

"The INS has already started interviewing visitors here from nations where there is significant al-Qaida activity, who are male between the ages of 18 and 46," a Bush administration official said. "We're not worried so much about the women."

"Let me be clear, it's not just people from countries with terrorist activities," he stressed, "but only certain people from those countries."

Justice last week added Syria to the INS list of "known countries of concern" or "special interest" – a move agents had long clamored for. The other countries on the immigration blacklist (separate from the State Department's list of terrorist-sponsoring countries) are Sudan, Libya, Iraq and Iran.

Under the new tougher immigration rules, Syrian and other Arab student pilots must report to an INS office on a predetermined day before their vocational visa expires, and show proof of their course work (Arab nationals visiting on student visas or work visas must show similar proof of their activities). Then they must return the day their visas expire to be put through the exit system, so the INS can know that they actually left the country.

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"Agents will ask them to report in, and if they do not report in when they are supposed to, then when they are picked up, they will be immediately deported," the official said.

Second-country passports

The 30-day fingerprinting rule does not exclude INS inspectors from fingerprinting and photographing Arab visitors who fit the high-risk profile, officials say. That is, a young Arab man who claims to be visiting the U.S. for fewer than 30 days can still be documented if agents determine him to be a potential risk.

"Agents can register anyone who might pose a national security threat," the official said.

"We want to make sure that terrorists aren't just coming over here and signing up to take flight lessons without us knowing," he added.

INS agents also have been instructed to register suspicious ethnic-Arab males with second-country passports from Canada or Britain, which heretofore have escaped scrutiny, officials say. (The INS classifies Canadian visitors as "N.C.," or not controlled, which means they don't have to fill out I-94 entry-exit forms or carry visas.)

"If someone Iraqi by birth came in on a passport from a friendly country, and there was enough reason to believe the person merits some closer scrutiny, they'd fingerprint and photograph them," the administration official said.

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