WASHINGTON, Nov. 21 — The Homeland Security Department has decided to stop a program that required thousands of Arab and Muslim men to register with immigration authorities after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, officials said on Friday.
Hoping to hunt down terrorists, immigration officials fingerprinted, photographed and interviewed 85,000 Muslim and Arab noncitizens from November 2002 to May 2003 under the program. The effort, the largest to register immigrants in decades, required annual reporting. Men from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan and Syria began going to immigration offices for a second round of registrations this month.
Officials have acknowledged that most of the Arabs and Muslims who have complied with the requirements had no ties to terrorist groups. Of the 85,000 men who went to immigration offices early this year, as well as tens of thousands screened at airports and border crossings, 11 had links to terrorism, officials said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/22/politics/22REGI.html?ex=1070168400&en=65902ba9a5d172c4&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE
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