Border guards recently began detaining Wissam Charafeddine every time he crosses from Windsor into the United States. Without explanation, he has been handcuffed in front of his parents and held apart from his pregnant wife for hours in isolated detention.

Charafeddine says he has done nothing wrong, “not even a driving ticket”. But authorities, who always release him, say there is no remedy. Charafeddine is among a large group of Arab-Americans and Muslims who are detained for undisclosed reasons whenever they cross the border.

So far, Charafeddine is affected only when he goes to Canada. But as early as this week, the US Department of Justice says it will announce a “terrorist profile” by which Muslim men of Arab and Pakistani descent who frequently travel abroad and maintain extensive international contacts may be subject not only to stops at the border but also to full-fledged national security investigations, which may include electronic surveillance, detentions, searches and interrogations, regardless of whether they are suspected of wrongdoing.

“There will not be equality under the law, for me. And I don’t think that’s the real solution for terrorism,” said Charafeddine , a naturalised American citizen who is an e-commerce business consultant. “It’s not solving the roots of the problem.”

Civil rights organisations are lobbying Congress, alerting their members and preparing to fight the new guidelines. While federal officials say the department will not violate the US constitution, civil liberties advocates say they are alarmed.

“What is dangerous is that they’ve moved away from reasonable suspicion of criminality into the area of what they are calling suspicious behaviour,” said Michael German, policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington, D.C., which is using lobbying resources and preparing legal challenges to the initiative.

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