On the edge of paranoia

Americans are putting up shutters, locking up doors and barricading themselves behind walls as fears of more terrorist attacks spread across their much-vaunted open society. Arabs and Muslims are not the only victims of this rank paranoia, but other foreigners as well - even bona fide business people who have been regular visitors to the United States and students studying there, and citizens of close allies and neighbours like Canada.

For, as new warnings of coming attacks that might be worse than the ones before are issued day in day out, fear has become Washington's main obsession, and it is shaping its attitudes towards foreigners as never before. The Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act, signed into law last week by President George W. Bush is one example. The massive crackdown on foreign students is another.

The rounding up and deportation of hundreds of Arabs and Muslims is a third. The tendency these days is to lump all foreigners into one category, wherever they come from, view them with suspicion and make them persona non grata for minor infractions of U.S. laws and visa procedures.

On the face of it, the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act has been designed to close gaps exploited by the September 11 hijackers. But the potential it has to make life difficult for all innocent foreigners who visit the United States on business or leisure or for the purpose of study is tremendous.

The law has cutback the duration of all visits from six months to 30 days, and any foreign visitor who needs to stay longer now has to seek express permission of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). The inspectors of the INS are required to review each and every application for an extension of stay and set 'a period of time that is fair and reasonable for the completion of the purpose of the visit.'

That is not all. The new law also requires visitors to have tamper-proof, biometric visas and passports. It allows the names of foreign visitors in airline passenger manifests to be forwarded to law enforcement authorities for screening, provides for better tracking of student visas and the establishment of a database of suspected people to check against visa applicants. The law also bars certain types of visas for people from countries that the U.S. State Department has listed as sponsors of terrorism.

The avowed aim of the new law, as INS officials explain it, is to close the borders to terrorists, while keeping it open to peaceful tourists and immigrants. That is well and good. Americans have good reason to be careful about terrorists after the cataclysmic events of September 11.

But the problem is that this growing anxiety about warnings of more terrorist attacks is creating a culture of suspicion about all foreigners coming to America, causing serious hassles for business travelers, holidaymakers and students seeking to study in U.S. universities, technical colleges and aeronautical training institutions.

And also for Canadians. Despite the fact that they share with Americans the world's longest and busiest border - for the most part unguarded as well - they too are being subjected to the dictates of the new law. The 30-day rule could affect close to a million Canadians, including some 100,000 retirees who spend their winter months in Florida, Arizona, Texas and California as well as Canadians holding 'B-1' Business and 'B-2' Pleasure visas which have allowed them unrestricted travel between the two countries and long stays in the U.S.

Naturally, Canadians are peeved. They feel Washington is not playing fair by its closet neighbour and ally. They say Americans have no justification for punishing them by applying the new rule to them, eliminating the six-month visa facility that they have enjoyed for over a century. After all, Canadians have always had a special relationship with the U.S., being partners of the North American free trade agreement (Nafta), and the North American defence system, (NORAD).

Canada has also harmonized its border controls with the U.S. and has adopted a similar policy on refugees, and Canadian intelligence services share intelligence with the FBI and the CIA.

In their view, all these affiliations makes for a special relationship with their American cousins, and therefore, they deserve special treatment. May be a special dispensation for Canadians going south of the border is in order.

Ottawa has taken up the issue with Washington, and the U.S. Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge, has tried to calm Canadians with verbal assurances that they can expect to be exempted from the regulations limiting visits by foreigners. But the exemption is still to be included in the new law, and Canadians are worried.

May be they will eventually get that exemption as there is also pressure from U.S. state governments and U.S. travel companies that depend on seasonal business from Canada to ease up on the 30-day rule. Governors, chambers of commerce and tourism associations in southern states, such as Florida, Texas, Arizona and California have objected to what they describe as an unnecessary restriction on the travel industry.

As for other foreigners, there is no sign of a let up anytime soon. Current estimates indicate that some seven million foreigners, good many of them people from the Middle East and Asia who are regular travelers to the United States on business or leisure, and parents of students would be affected by the restrictions.

Among them are thousands of young people from Third World countries seeking to study in American universities. Under the new regulations, which are now in effect, foreign students have to obtain student visas before beginning classes. Up until now, they were able to enroll in U.S. schools while holding tourist or business visas if they had applied for a change to student status.

So would be thousands of other foreign students already in American colleges. Their lives have been put on hold as the INS revamps its system of monitoring and tracking foreign students.

The U.S. Congress has said that the current system is 'antiquated and inadequate' and has mandated an Internet-based system to improve student tracking. This new system is not expected to be ready before the January 2003 deadline.

The U.S. Justice Department said this month that the system, known as the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), would be geared to provide up-to-date computerised information on one million non-immigrant foreign students studying in the United States at any time, including name changes and new dropouts.

"These are additional hurdles and they are counter-productive," says Mohamed Iqbal, a Pakistani from Karachi who is enrolled in a U.S. university in midwest, but currently cooling his heels in Toronto. "People will opt for other universities in Canada and Europe. It probably will have a significant impact on business and travel folks as well."

Clearly, the U.S. administration sees these as necessary steps in a world significantly altered since September 11. Canadians - and indeed many foreigners like Mohamed Iqbal - are not so sure. While the destruction of the twin towers and the Pentagon are things to be afraid of, responding to fear by erecting barriers that are not in harmony with justice and norm