Oregon police refuse to follow federal procedure

Police in an Oregon college town became the second force to rebuff federal law enforcers' plans to interview foreigners as part of an antiterrorism sweep. \nIn Michigan, meanwhile, a newspaper report of a federal memo has increased doubts about a program encouraging people from countries where Osama bin Laden's terror network has been active to come forward for questioning. \nCorvallis, Ore., police said Wednesday they would refuse to interview foreign visitors as part of the federal probe. Portland, Ore., had been the only city to refuse the request by the Justice Department to participate in the interviews, citing state privacy laws. \nAs many as 5,000 foreign visitors will be questioned nationwide, some 200 in Oregon. \nCorvallis Police Chief Pam Roskowski said the city of 50,000 will be better served if officers concentrate on criminal investigations rather than interviewing people on the federal list who are not criminal suspects. \n"It is incumbent on all law enforcement agencies to promote the balance of protecting the community ... while preserving the freedoms and civil liberties of all residents," the police statement said. \nFederal agents will likely question 23 foreign visitors in the Portland area since police have refused to take part, the U.S. Attorney's office said Wednesday. About 30 people will be interviewed in Corvallis, home of Oregon State University. \nIn Michigan, home to the nation's largest concentration of Arab-Americans, the U.S. Attorney in Detroit announced Monday that federal investigators would ask Middle Easterners and other foreigners to submit to questioning rather than be sought out. \nWednesday, the Detroit Free Press reported on a U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service memo that said some foreigners wanted for questioning may be jailed without bond if investigators wanted to scrutinize them further. \nThe memo, dated Friday, also said people with visa violations and those of interest to local FBI agents and U.S. attorneys can be held by authorities. \nNoel Saleh, a Detroit immigration attorney, expressed fears that using the INS to hold people based on a request from the FBI left plenty of room for abuse. \n"It's hardly a method of voluntary cooperation when you start holding people with no bond based on what is I'm certain will be some investigators' jaundiced view," Saleh said. "This basically confirms everybody's worst fears that this is a witch-hunt and a dragnet, and people are going to get swept up in it for no reason"