LOS ANGELES, Dec. 16 — Lines began forming before dawn today outside the downtown federal building here as hundreds of men from five Muslim countries showed up to register with immigration authorities under a sweeping national dragnet designed to identify potential terrorists.

Attorney General John Ashcroft issued an order last month requiring virtually all male noncitizens over the age of 16 who come from 18 countries, mostly Arab and Muslim, to be interviewed, photographed and fingerprinted by federal authorities. The program affects tens of thousands of immigrants from those countries, most of whom hold valid work and study visas.

Those who fail to comply face criminal charges and immediate expulsion from the country.

This is an urgent message for all of you to act upon.

Since yesterday, December 16, 2002, many hundreds of people of Iranian decent been arrested by the US Immigration and Naturalization Service. These are people from 16 years to 70 years old. Many have been in the US legally or were even born in the US, and had been invited to renew, apply or be questioned by INS.

Many of these people are sick and have not been given any food to eat for the last 48 hours or given their primary rights in anything; those whom are sick and in need of medical attention have been denied their rights and not given the time to meet with their family members; therefore, this is a matter of international concern: an illegal act has been conducted by the judicial system here in the USA, the one that talks about human rights and flags its democratic views on other nations! The Iranians in prison were hand-cuffed and have even been foot-cuffed and treated in an inhuman way like killers and other criminals; they are being treated like the Japanese people sent to concentration camps during the Second World War. These people are being kept in various prisons and detention centers in the Los Angeles area and across the nation.

Please, this is urgent and needs to be dealt with promptly. One of the things that you could do is contact the CNN, BBC, ABC, Reuters Dagens Nyheter, Afton Bladet and Expressen and all other world news to inform them about this illegal act conducted by John Ashcroft and the US Department of Justice.

In the name of solidarity.