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Plan increases scrutiny of some U.S. visitors

Ashcroft: "We will continue to greet our international neighbors with good will."

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Attorney General John Ashcroft announced a new program Wednesday to sharply increase the scrutiny of certain visitors to the United States as part of the war on terror.

"In this new war, our enemies' platoons infiltrate our border, quietly blending in with visitors and tourists and students and workers," he said.

To stop those who "pose a national security concern," the Justice Department is launching the National Security Entrance/Exit Registration System.

Ashcroft said he expects about 100,000 visitors would be fingerprinted and photographed before entering the country the first year and then required to register periodically after that.

Sources said the effort would focus primarily on men from Middle Eastern and Muslim nations and nations with known connections to the al Qaeda terrorist network. Among them: Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan.

For his part, Ashcroft refused to name particular countries.

Critics said the initiative would be discriminatory and ineffective.

One advocate for Arab-Americans said John Walker Lindh, an American captured in Afghanistan and accused of fighting with the Taliban, would likely not have been covered by the initiative.

What the initiative would require Fingerprinting and photographing at ports of entry of visitors from countries who pose "elevated national security concern" Periodic registration if staying over 30 days Exit controls to help INS remove visitors who overstay their visas  CNN.COM SPECIAL REPORT  CNN NewsPass Video  Agencies reportedly got hijack tips in 1998  MORE STORIES Intelligence intercept led to Buffalo suspects Report cites warnings before 9/11  EXTRA INFORMATION Timeline: Who Knew What and When? Interactive: Terror Investigation Terror Warnings System Most wanted terrorists What looks suspicious? In-Depth: America Remembers In-Depth: Terror on Tape In-Depth: How prepared is your city?  RESOURCES On the Scene: Barbara Starr: Al Qaeda hunt expands? On the Scene: Peter Bergen: Getting al Qaeda to talk

"There will be selective application against Arabs and Muslims and this is pure form of discrimination," said Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations.

"It tells me the Justice Department is losing its sense of justice. It shows the government has been ineffective in preventing September 11 and now we are getting involved in a coverup operation by just rounding up the usual suspects," Awad said.

"Unfortunately this is not a movie. This is real life, it is ineffective."

Ashcroft called early results of the pilot program "extremely promising."

"For example, we're receiving an average of 67 hits per week," he said. "That is to say, about 1,400 wanted criminals have been arrested in the past five months as they have attempted to enter the country."

The initiative was applauded by some U.S. lawmakers.

"Entrance into the United States is not a guaranteed right," said Rep. Mark Foley, R-Florida, who urged the Justice Department to go further by requiring registration overseas, when they first apply for visas, for visitors from countries that support terrorism.

But Rep. John Conyers, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, called the initiative "shocking" and "Orwellian."

"The administration's recent barrage of 'feel good' measures seems designed only to distract from its own recently disclosed failures and efforts to hide those failures," the Michigan Democrat said in a statement.

"The September 11 hijackers were allowed into the country, not because they didn't identify themselves, but because the government didn't properly use the information it already had."

Conyers said the new initiative would "further alienate the American Muslim community and our Muslim allies abroad, two crucial allies in our fight against terrorism."

The attorney general said Congress mandated the tracking of all the country's 35 million annual visitors and that the initiative, which he said was backed by statutes dating to the 1950s, was a "first crucial phase."

Ashcroft said photographs and fingerprints were necessary to stop known terrorists from entering the country under assumed names or with false documents.

Fingerprints would be compared against "vast databases of known criminals and terrorists," a process that would take only three minutes, he said.

He also said unidentified fingerprints collected from sites of terrorist acts and from Taliban and al Qaeda areas in Afghanistan would be entered into the database and could be matched to individuals who later try to enter the United States.

If they stay longer than 30 days, visitors from countries tied to terrorism would have to register at an Immigration and Naturalization Service office and every 12 months after the date of entry, Ashcroft said.

And they would have to verify they were following their stated itinerary, he said.

People from such countries who are already in the United States would be asked to register as well, Ashcroft said.

He noted that such a system of registration is in place in many European countries.

Ashcroft said anyone who tries to evade the program, violates the rules or overstays the limit of his visa would have his photographs and fingerprints entered into the National Crime Information System, accessed by the nation's 650,000 police officers.

If a federal, state or local officer encountered anyone on the list, the person would be subject to arrest and transfer to INS custody, Ashcroft said.

"We will continue to greet our international neighbors with good will," Ashcroft said. "Asking some neighbors and visitors to verify their activities while they are here is fully consistent with that outlook."

-- CNN Justice Department Producer Terry Frieden contributed to this report