Today is the deadline for immigrants from five Muslim countries to register with the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Immigration advocates charge that the Government program is a catch-22.

Many aliens who registered have overstayed their visas or are otherwise in the country illegally, although many have applications pending to legalize their status. Illegal status brings the risk of detention.

The new rule has put immigration lawyer Kamal Nawash's clients in an awkward position. They are among the 640,000 illegal immigrants who took advantage of a special visa offered before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks that allowed them to stay in the United States and seek permanent residency.

Those immigrants paid a $1,000 fine -- imposed as punishment for their illegal status -- and often thousands of dollars in legal fees to obtain the visas. Then, after the terror attacks, the federal government imposed the special registration requirements.

Nawash advised his clients to register, based on the assumption that immigration officials would allow latitude for people who were in the process of adjusting their immigration status to become legal.

He was mistaken.

The New York Times has more on the program here.

...more than 9,000 illegal immigrants have registered so far, hoping, perhaps, for leniency. They have all been issued notices to appear in court, often the first step toward deportation; about 2,300 have been detained for further questioning, for anywhere from a few hours to three days, lawyers and officials said. Immigration officials emphasized that the detainees represented only a small minority of those questioned.

There has to be a better way. We're reminded of the opening scenes in The Pianist, where day by day the restrictions increased against Jews in Poland--first registration, then armbands, then curfews, then the ghetto.

If you or a client or a family member have been through the process, the American Immigration Lawyers' Organization is seeking your input. Go here and fill out the form. Help them keep track of what is happening--we can't count on the Government to tell us.