Foreign students must register under new government regulations

Foreign students have been increasingly unsettled this semester by new government rules regulating their presence in the United States. The registration requirements created by the Bush administration have changed several times since their original implementation this fall.

Congress mandated the initial registration system in June, calling it the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS). The system requires male citizens over the age of 16 of Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Syria, and Libya who are temporary US residents to register with the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) upon entering the United States. Registration at legal ports of entry began on Sept. 11, 2002.

NSEERS also demands citizens of the five listed countries to check in with the INS 30 days after their initial registration, and again once every year. A Department of Justice Facts Sheet stated that certain aliens from the designated countries who entered the US before the NSEERS took effect would also have to register.

The second phase, announced a few weeks ago and effective on Monday, adds Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Eritrea, Lebanon, Morocco, North Korea, Oman, Qatar, Somalia, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen to the list. There are 16 citizens of the listed countries attending Tufts (not including the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy), nine of whom are male, according to the Tufts International Center.

During registration, the INS fingerprints and photographs the registrant, and questions him extensively. Tufts senior Seif Shieshakly, a Saudi Arabia native, was forced to register upon re-entering the US from Germany.

Though Shieshakly had already learned about the registration process from friends and the International Center, he found the questions strange. Among the things Shieshakly was asked was his purpose for being in the US and whether he was a member of al Qaeda.

The Tufts International Center is working actively to help students by learning whether they have to register and supplying them with the information and documents they need. The center sent e-mails to all of the students who might fit NSEERS criteria at the beginning of the year, International Center Director Jane Etish-Andrews said.

The center will contact students about the new provisions through the Arab Student Association and the Muslim Student Association. But since "[the criteria are] rapidly changing, it's hard to keep up with," Etish-Andrews said.

One of the challenges to fully understanding the new rules is that INS officials can invoke "discretionary criteria" to stop almost any alien from entering the US. The INS's criteria is "classified and sensitive," but Department of Justice Spokesman Jorge Martinez said that suspect travel plans could earmark an individual.

Additionally, many Tufts students who might otherwise have to register will leave the country before the January deadline. This means that they will register upon reentering the US, instead of going to the Boston INS office. These students may have to report for the 30-day registration check after their return, however.

Although they might not agree fully with the procedure, most affected students see the need for heightened security. "I think it's legitimate, there is a reason, as long as it doesn't go out of control," Shieshakly said. "What I find really funny, and iffy, was what the INS calls 'special treatment'... that's how it started with the Jews [under Hitler]."

Citing the film The Siege, he said that it would not be a very large stretch to imagine people being rounded up as a result of their citizenship or ethnicity. "It's happened before, it's happened here with the Japanese," Shieshakly said.

Failure to register would result in the person's name being turned over to law enforcement officials, a $1,000 fine, incarceration, and possible deportation.

But students are not likely to avoid registration, Etish-Andrews said. "I would say that they're nervous but they're going to do it," she said. "Nobody has complained that they've been harassed in any way."

The measures, however, have the potential to alienate foreign students. Shieshakly said he would be leaving the United States after his graduation, since it was not worth the trouble of staying.

Attorney General John Ashcroft said early in November that since starting the NSEERS, 179 individuals from 112 countries had been arrested. The NSEERS generated controversy with Canada, who pushed for exemptions for Canadians born in one of the affected countries.