Ventura County Star: Immigrants' kin protest detentions by INS

"I blame myself. Why I brought my son here and put him in jail. Why? Just because I followed the law," Mohajeri cried. "I made a mistake. I shouldn't do that, but I did."

Immigration lawyers estimate at least 500 Middle Eastern immigrants have been detained in California since Monday, when male visa holders 16 and older from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan and Syria were asked to report to local immigration offices to be fingerprinted and photographed or risk being deported.

Another 500 immigrants are believed to have been arrested on minor visa violations since the registration process began in November. The Immigration and Naturalization Service has refused to release any official figures on the number of detentions.

This is going to be like the Houston mass police arrests - a black-eye politically and lawsuites filed.