Yearly re-registration of Muslim visitors ends

The Dept. of Homeland Security has switched to a new entry/exit system. Re-registration is now for select individuals only.

By Myrle Croasdale, AMNews staff. Jan. 12, 2004.

The special registration program that forced several thousand physicians from countries with links to al Qaeda to go to U.S. immigration offices to be photographed, fingerprinted and interviewed is undergoing a major overhaul.

As of Dec. 2, 2003, the Dept. of Homeland Security no longer requires all visitors from a list of mostly Muslim countries to return to designated immigration offices each year for registration. Instead, it will seek out individuals from this group that it considers security risks for re-registration interviews.

International medical graduates make up a quarter of the physicians in the United States. Homeland Security does not track the number of physicians registered, but at least 60,000 physicians in the United States went to medical school in India, Pakistan, Egypt, Iran or Syria -- all countries on the Homeland Security list.

Since stricter security measures were put into place, there have been numerous reports of foreign physicians who left the United States only to be blocked from returning to existing employment because of confusion over registration requirements or delays in obtaining security clearances. IMGs headed here to begin residencies encountered some of the same problems, and some missed out on residencies entirely because of visa delays.

Raana Akbar, MD, president of the Assn. of Pakistani Physicians of North America and an allergist and immunologist in Saginaw, Mich., said the Homeland Security decision was a good one. "I think people are very happy about this," she said of APPNA members. "[Special registration of Muslims] was a mistake from the very beginning, and this is a step in the right direction. The Muslim community all over America felt very discriminated against by this."