Silicon Valley: The United States is clamping down on immigrants, including green card holders, with the Justice Department announcing that it intends to use criminal penalties against non-citizens who fail to notify the government of a change of address within 10 days.

Failure to report would also mean a fine of up to $ 200, up to 30 days in jail and possible deportation. Attorney General John Ashcroft said the move would help secure US borders by making it easier to track non-citizens, a media report said on July 24.

"By clarifying the existing requirement that non- citizens report their address to the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (INS), we are able to increase our ability to locate quickly an alien if removal proceedings must be initiated," Ashcroft said in Washington.

The 10-day notice requirement, which has long been on the books but is widely ignored and rarely enforced, would apply to at least 11 million people older than 14, who are living in the United States legally but not as American citizens.

The INS plans to enforce the regulation after a 60-day comment period. The 'San Jose Mercury News' said immigration advocates denounced the plan as heavy-handed and unworkable, saying the INS will not be able to handle the paperwork.

"This initiative is going to leave a pervasive feeling in immigrant communities that they're all under suspicion. Of course we need to know who is in the United States. But let's be smart and not talk about throwing people in jail for the equivalent of having an overdue library book," she said.

Bush administration said that that this rule was intended to improve the Justice Department's ability to track down visitors and other immigrants who enter the nation legally but later arouse suspicion.

However, there are some advocacy groups who are worried that the INS might use it to deport law-abiding immigrants merely suspected of terrorist connections.

PTI