WALNUT CREEK, Calif. — Male visitors to the United States from a group of Muslim countries have been allowed another month to comply with a controversial registration program or face possible deportation, the Immigration and Naturalization Service announced Tuesday.
Men over 16 from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have until March 21 to register with their local INS office, a full month after the original deadline. U.S. citizens, permanent residents, refugees and asylum applicants and recipients are excluded from the requirement.
Men over 16 from Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan and Kuwait have also received a deadline extension. Originally required to check in with the authorities by March 28, nationals from those five countries can register between Feb. 24 and April 25.
The registration requirement only applies to people who entered the United States before last October.
The Pakistani government has expressed its objections to the U.S. program requiring its nationals to register. The arrests of hundreds of Iranians complying with the
program in Southern California in December triggered protests from immigrant groups.
“The Pakistani government did not want Pakistan to be on this list because we are an ally in the war against terrorism,” said Raana Rahim, Pakistani general consul in Los Angeles.
“What we also told the U.S. government is Pakistanis are contributing tremendously to the economic prosperity of the United States. It’s a very good and very hard-working community that has a very low crime rate.”
An INS press release said the deadline extensions were issued “in response to requests for more time from different individuals
and entities.”
INS spokeswoman Sharon Rummery, based in San Francisco, said she did not know what individuals and entities the press release referred to.
Advocates for immigrants and civil libertarians have condemned the registration program as a discriminatory targeting of Middle Eastern men, while INS officials have defended it as a necessary
national security measure.
Previous registration deadlines affected men from Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, North Korea, Oman, Qatar, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.