US department announces longer visa waits for Arabs
Regional-USA, Politics, 11/12/2001

The State Department has announced that it would slow the process for granting visas to young men from Arab and Muslim nations in an effort to prevent terrorist attacks.

State Department officials said that starting next week, visa applications from 26 nations from any men 16 to 45 years old would be checked against databases maintained by the Federal Bureau of Investigations.

Visa applicants will also be required to complete a detailed questionnaire on their backgrounds, including questions about any military service or weapons training, previous travel, and whether they had ever lost a passport.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell portrayed the new rules as temporary.

The move on visas drew immediate criticism in the United States, where pro-immigration groups and organizations representing American Muslims said the new requirements amounted to profiling by religion or nationality, a shift to methods they called antithetical to American values.

"This policy to me is very gray," said Angela M. Kelley, the deputy director of the National Immigration Forum, a pro-immigrant policy group. "It will catch up in its net people who mean us no harm. It sends the wrong message for a nation of immigrants."

Concerning the State Department's new visa policy, even advocates of tighter controls on immigration expressed discomfort with the approach. Steven Camarota, the research director of the Center for Immigration Reform in Washington, said the United States should scrutinize all visa applicants equally and not just focus on Muslim men. Technological advances should allow for all visa applicants to be finger-printed and checked by the F.B.I., Mr. Camarota said.

"There should be a consensus in the United States that we don't want an ethnic- or religious-based immigration system," he said.

Previous Stories:
  Anti-terrorism battle should be under UN umbrella   (11/10/2001)
  Euro-Mediterranean forum backs Mubarak's anti-terror conference   (11/10/2001)
  ADC warns against civilian casualties, expansion of conflict   (11/9/2001)

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