Imagine spending seven hours in a cramped federal office, waiting to be fingerprinted and interviewed by Immigration and Naturalization Service officials. You don’t know why you’re there, only that the Department of Justice has asked all non-immigrant men over the age of 16 from your birth country to report in.

You ask a clerk at the INS, who responds, “It all goes back to September 11,” but refuses to elaborate.

This was Soufi Basem’s experience. Basem, senior in computer engineering from Damascus, Syria, was getting ready for Thanksgiving break when he learned, via a friend, that he was in danger of being deported if he did not register with the INS.

So, Basem and two friends gathered their papers, got letters from Alumni Hall proving their status as full-time students and made a trip to the INS office in Des Moines.

After waiting for seven hours, Basem was fingerprinted, asked about his activities in the United States, where he lives, his phone number, parents’ names, passport number and driver’s license number. He will repeat this process every year at the same time for as long as he lives in the United States.

Basem took part in the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System, devised by the Justice Department to tag foreign nationals who are possible risks to national security. It was designed to make up for weaknesses in the current immigration system, which “does not provide for the collection of information on the activities and whereabouts of aliens holding non-immigrant visas,” according to a Justice Department press release. Basem holds a student visa, and Syria was among the first group of countries listed for special registration.

The USA PATRIOT Act spurred the creation of this system, which runs the fingerprints of registrants against a database of known criminals and terrorists. U.S. law already required immigrants to be fingerprinted and interviewed, but those requirements have been suspended for decades. In addition, there is a newly limited list of airports from which certain foreign visitors can leave and enter the United States.

“I just did that interview because of who I am, where I was born, things I cannot change,” Basem said.

In a press release, the Justice Department said the program should identify aliens who pose the highest risk of involvement in terrorist organizations, and notify the FBI of aliens who overstay their visas or deviate from their original plans.

Twenty countries, mostly Muslim and Arabic-speaking, have been identified and listed for special registration. Non-immigrant alien males over the age of 16 from the following countries must register: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, Syria, Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Eritrea, Lebanon, Morocco, North Korea, Oman, Qatar, Somalia, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

The countries have been broken up into groups assigned three separate “call-in” dates, and Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are currently registering.

Dennis Peterson, director of International Education Services, said 16 ISU students were affected by the first round of call-ins, including Basem. Peterson estimates, however, that at least 100 Pakistani and Saudi Arabian students at Iowa State will have to register.

“We e-mailed all the students from that first group of countries,” Peterson said. “We’ve heard about long waits in Des Moines, but we haven’t heard of any of those registered getting arrested or deported.”

Basem, however, said the letter he received from International Education Services came “too late.” He wonders what would have happened if he never found out about the registration.

“What if he [his friend] hadn’t told me?” Basem asked.

Both the INS and the Justice Department have been roundly criticized for not circulating notices of the special registration.

Ben Stone, executive director of the Iowa Civil Liberties Union, calls the registration “very confusing and very disorganized, which makes it difficult for immigrants to comply.”

Hundreds of immigrants were arrested in California in December during registrations, many for lost paperwork.

“When you’ve got people being locked up for a day or two for simply having an application pending, it sends a negative message to the international community that we’re trying to reach out to,” Stone said.

Basem agrees.

“They should have given us a reason before they asked us [to register]” Basem said. “It would make us feel like we were cooperating.”