|
Registration raises questions
 Media Credit: Andy Rennecke Central Minnesota Legal Services lawyer Laura Tripiciano speaks to the audience in the Atwood Little Theater Thursday about special registration. The speech was sponsored by People Uniting for Peace.
|
|
The issue of special registration was the center of a heated discussion that took place last Thursday afternoon in the Atwood Memorial Center theater.
People Uniting for Peace organized the event which brought speaker Laura Tripiciano to campus.
Tripiciano is a lawyer from Central Minnesota Legal Services. She currently works in St. Cloud; her expertise is in immigration and family law.
"Immigrants need help because this country was founded on immigrants," she said. "I want to help immigrants the way my grandparents were helped when they came to this country."
Not a new concept
Tripiciano started out by addressing the audience on registration for immigrants in general and how it is not a new phenomenon in this country.
As a result of WWII, the Alien Registration Act of 1940 was put in place. Every "alien" was forced to register no matter his or her age, race, religion or origin. All those that registered were given a card and "alien registration number" to show they had gone through the correct proceedings.
But registration alone was not enough for the United States to keep track of everyone crossing over its borders. Most people are familiar with the concept of Japanese internment camps, when Japanese Americans were rounded up during WWII and put in specified locations simply because they came from Japan, then an enemy of the U.S. Because the tragedy at Pearl Harbor put fear into America, the government figured every Japanese American was a possible suspect for another tragedy.
Many people are not familiar with the fact that the U.S. government also did this to thousands of German and Italian Americans.
Tripiciano was quick to point out that though the U.S. may not be using internment camps anymore, the government still has "an attitude of keeping immigrants in a certain place, so to speak."
Now, after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Tripiciano said, some Americans view people with origins in the Middle East as being a suspect which is why special registration was formed.
After 9-11, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) got plenty of flack from the American public for not spotting the terrorists ahead of time. Since then, the INS has taken initiative to prove to the public that it does care about who comes into the country, wants to keep a tighter lid on U.S. borders and close tabs on people who already live here.
Specified registration
The problem is that special registration is seen as a form of racial profiling; the program only targets certain people from designated countries.
First, only males over age 16 are required to register. These men must only register if their place of origin falls under one of four categories. These categories contain countries that are predominantly Muslim such as Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Lebanon.
People who are required to register must report to the INS building in Bloomington. There they are fingerprinted, photographed and interviewed about their history and activities in the U.S. They must also provide their visa, green card and, in some instances, their credit card numbers as well.
They are encouraged to come as early as possible considering the INS works on a first come first serve basis. Tripiciano said she had just waited in line with a client for five hours the day before coming to SCSU.
This brought up another point that Tripiciano felt was necessary to make. Because special registration is a new program, she said, it is a sloppy program. With all of the applicants the INS sees every day, there are hardly enough workers to go through the system efficiently.
The INS also lacks proper funding to use its resources effectively, Tripiciano said, and has become backlogged since the program was put in place. A simple change of address could take up to a year before it is put on a person's record.
Backlog problems have lead to green cards being sent to immigrants' old addresses, problematic because their failure to receive a green card could result in their detainment or even deportation.
Regardless of its flaws, Tripiciano still believed that the INS was doing the best job it possibly could and was fair and respectful of the immigrants it worked with.
Heated discussion
Up until this point, Tripiciano's presentation was informative and calmly received by her audience. But when she asked for some questions before moving on, audience members vented their frustration with special registration.
Professor Tamrat Tademe disagreed with Tripiciano at length. He raised three points that frustrated him during the first part of her lecture.
First, he said he found the term "alien" to be offensive, outdated and uncivilized.
"As far as I can tell, no one in this country is from another planet," he said.
Tripiciano stated that she was only using proper INS terminology to which the professor replied, "So it's OK then?"
He was also upset by her use and Americans' use of the phrase "internment camp." He felt that what the U.S. did to Japanese Americans was the same as a concentration camp in Nazi Germany. The U.S., he said, uses "internment camp" to sound less harsh and gentler about what it did to its citizens during WWII.
The last problem he had was one shared by several other students. Many did not feel Tripiciano was giving the right perspective on special registration. Though Tripiciano claims that people registering at the INS are treated fairly, they said, she does not truly know since she is not the one registering and being questioned.
Tripiciano constantly reminded the crowd that she had witnessed her own clients being treated respectfully.
The professor who began this debate also felt Tripiciano was equalizing all discriminatory acts. Just because two people are racially profiled does not mean they have the same experiences, he said.
The professor talked about students coming to him with tears in their eyes because they had just been interrogated by police or pulled off of the streets by an officer because they looked suspicious. The interrogation and profiling of students is not something only happening in the Twin Cities, but in St. Cloud as well.
After this, the professor stood up and left.
MnSCU support
The theater quickly formed into a discussion among audience members including faculty and students.
One issue raised was the apparent support from Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) of special registration. In the most extreme case, dropping and adding a class can result in deportation.
When coming to the U.S. to go to school, international students need a student visa, which requires them to be a full-time student taking at least 12 credits. During drop/add week, professors claimed that many computers crashed and the system was down for a few days. As a result, some students, foreign or not, could not do their normal class registration and came up short of having at least 12 credits.
Sometimes when this occurs, students move on and try to correct the problem later. Unfortunately, for international students, later is not an option.
The INS requires knowledge of international students' majors, minors and specific classes. When the system is updated, soon to be on a daily basis with support from MnSCU, the INS can see if an international student does not have the required course load necessary. This information helps the INS look for possible suspicious behavior.
Therefore, international students, especially those qualified for special registration, have a risk of being asked to come in for interrogation. From there they could be detained for days in the basement of the INS building, transferred to Sherburne County Jail or possibly even be deported.
MnSCU's support of the daily downloading of student files into the INS system goes against its board policy Chapter 1, Section B, Subpart A dealing with equal education and employment opportunity.
It specifically states, "Racial discrimination is prohibited by state and federal law. Racial discrimination is defined as conduct that is directed at an individual because of his/her race, color or national origin...and that subjects the individual to different treatment by agent or employees so as to interfere with or limit the ability of the individual to participate in, or benefit from, the services, activities or privileges provided by the system or colleges or universities."
Students and professors in attendance said they wanted SCSU to make a public statement against MnSCU regardless whether the statement would affect MnSCU's stance or not.
Sarah Hollinger, a senior, coordinated the event. She also participated in the discussion.
"It's an extremely explosive issue right now, though there is not a lot of awareness," she said. "I'm glad about the discussion because (the issue) needs to be talked about.
"The problem is that there's not a lot of clarity. The law is very vague but the punishment is very clear."
|
|
|
|
|
|
