Federal officials announced Monday that they will drop most of the elements of a program that has required men from predominantly Muslim countries to register with the government and present themselves for questioning, fingerprinting and photographing. That was overdue.
Along with the detention of hundreds of immigrants who were held for weeks and months without trial–largely on the basis that they were young, male and from Muslim countries–the registration program represented the most serious post-Sept. 11 risk to traditional American principles of liberty, due process and individual rights.
Neither of these efforts was unprecedented or completely unjustified. During wars and national emergencies, the federal government has implemented measures that sometimes in retrospect seem like unwarranted violations of basic rights.
At the time of those emergencies, including the weeks and months after the Sept. 11 terrorist assaults–a fearful citizenry has looked first to the government for protection.
The threat of terrorism will continue to dangle over the U.S. for the foreseeable future, and the long-term challenge will be to craft and enact security measures that effectively deter those who would do us harm, and that respect constitutional guarantees and personal liberties.
The detention and registration efforts, ultimately, did not meet either criteria. Even the Justice Department’s inspector general found fault with the excessive time it took to exonerate and release many of those who were detained. The roundup of hundreds of immigrants didn’t yield a single charge of terrorism.
Likewise, the government has had ample time to evaluate the registration program for 83,000 male immigrants regarded as “high national security concerns.” That effort produced little information that was valuable in the anti-terrorism battle and caused resentment in many individuals and their families, including many who are here legally, as detailed in the Tribune’s three-part series “Tossed Out of America.”
Deportation proceedings against approximately 14,000 registrants have led to hundreds of expulsions of people who were in this country illegally. The government says the proceedings against illegal immigrants identified through the registration process will continue, as they should. This nation does need, as this page has often urged, an overhaul of its immigration policies and practices. But the fact that illegal immigrants were snared in an anti-terrorism effort does not argue for simply ignoring their illegal residency status.
As the fight against terrorism here and abroad continues, the path to measures that balance legitimate security concerns and individual liberties and rights will at times be tortuous. But if history demonstrates anything about the U.S. system of justice, it is the intrinsic fairness and ability for self-correction. The abandonment of the Muslim registration program demonstrates that once again.
