Immigration Laws: February, 2002 - Number #1

Federal payments of up to $1.6 million are available to the families of those who died in the September 11 attacks, with a minimum payment of $250,000. At least 16 unauthorized Mexicans, mostly restaurant employees, were killed in the World Trade Center- and U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Jeffrey Davidow announced that their families would receive at least the minimum $250,000 payment.

The Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002, expected to be approved by February 2002, would tighten the requirements for student visas and require federal agencies to share information through a common computer system so that they can better track immigrants' movements. It also authorizes pay raises for Immigration and Naturalization Service border inspectors and funding to hire 600 new customs and INS inspectors and investigators.

A provision to revive the 245(i) program, under which foreigners illegally in the US when their immigrant visas become available can pay $1,000 and adjust their status, was dropped. Before the 245(i) program expired in April 2001, some 400,000 foreigners paid $1,000 to adjust their status to immigrant and remain in the US.

The State Department in January 2002 instructed US consular officers to question men aged 16 to 45 applying for visas to enter the US about their military service, experience with weapons of mass destruction and affiliation with professional, social and charitable organizations. The State Department has begun to make available to INS video images of foreigners who have been issued US visas, so that immigration inspectors at ports of entry can determine whether the person presenting the visa is the person to whom it was issued abroad. Congress is considering legislation that would mandate the inclusion of unique, personal identifiers--such as digitized fingerprints--on visas, and in the passports of 29 countries whose citizens do not need visas to enter the US.

The 1,995-employee Bureau of Consular Affairs issues visas abroad. Visa officers in January 2001 were reminded not to refuse a visa without an interview with the applicant. In FY 2000, some 7.1 million of the 9.5 million applicants (75 percent) people were successful.

Detention. In November 2001, some 548 Muslim men were detained on immigration charges, a peak for a single month; their number declined to 450 in January 2002. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a Freedom of Information Act suit in an attempt to identify the detainees, who are being held in anonymity. The ACLU has offered to help detained foreigners, especially those held for long periods, to "put a human face" on what the ACLU fears are abuses of government power.

As of January 2002, some 92 foreigners had been charged with a wide array of federal crimes, but only one--Zacarias Moussaoui, suspected of being the "20th hijacker"--has been linked to September 11.

The Census Bureau in January 2002 estimated that 114,818 Middle Easterners were in the US illegally, plus 40,000 from Pakistan.

The ACLU also attacked the plan of the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators to standardize the 50 state systems for issuing drivers' licenses, and the establishment of a centralized database of licensed drivers. The AAMVA has requested $100 million in federal funds for the new licenses, which would include information on drivers' unique physical characteristics, and for the database (www.aamva.org/). The ACLU charged that the plan would create a de facto national ID.

The AAMVA plan would allow DMVs to share applicant information with the Social Security Administration, the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the FBI to help them deny licenses to criminals, suspected terrorists and foreign visitors who overstay their visas. About 75 percent of Americans carry some form of DMV-issued ID. The AAMVA says: "Our driver's license has become the most requested form of identification. Because the American people depend on this one card, AAMVA has the responsibility and obligation to do whatever it can to enhance the security of this document to improve public safety and national security."

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in January 2002 that a federal law requiring mandatory detention for foreigners facing deportation hearings after serving a criminal sentence violates the due process rights of immigrants who have previously established permanent resident status. Since October 1998, the federal government has required that all immigrants facing deportation because of crimes they committed to remain in detention after they finish their sentences, regardless of how long the deportation process lasts. The ruling, based on two June 2001 US Supreme Court rulings, found this INS practice unconstitutional.

When caught near US borders, Mexicans are usually returned to Mexico, but other foreigners who are apprehended must be brought before a judge for a removal order. They are usually given the opportunity to post bond and go free until their case, in which the INS tries to deport them, is heard. In FY2000, immigration courts reviewed the cases of 215,894 undocumented aliens, including 144,000 who had been released on bail pending immigration hearings. About 31 percent of those released on bail did not show up for their deportation hearings; most were ordered deported in absentia.

The INS estimates that some 314,000 foreigners who have been ordered deported are at large in the US. In January 2002, the names of several thousand Middle Eastern men were added to the FBI database to expedite locating them. Most of the 314,000 are Mexicans, and advocates for Arab-Americans denounced the practice of adding only the Middle Eastern men as racial profiling.

Airport Screeners. Federal government employees must be US citizens, with exceptions such as allowing legal immigrants to serve in the US Armed Forces. The federal government is to become the employer of most of the country's 28,000 security screeners of passengers and their carry-on luggage under a November 2001 law.

The Service Employees International Union lobbied for an exception to the citizenship requirement, noting that pilots and the military, including the armed National Guardsmen stationed at airport terminals, do not have to be US citizens. The SEIU failed to win an exception, and nine immigrant screeners who could lose their jobs sued the Secretary of Transportation in January 2002, arguing that the citizenship requirement for screeners was unconstitutional. Across the US, about 80 percent of screeners are believed to be US citizens, but only 20 percent are citizens at the San Francisco Airport.

Immigration. After September 11, some observers expected proposals in Congress to reduce immigration after September 11, but the Los Angeles Times on January 10, 2002 concluded that "the most significant development in the national immigration debate is what hasn't happened: No lawmaker of influence has moved to reverse the country's generous immigration policy, which for more than three decades has facilitated the largest sustained wave of immigration in U.S. history." The reason, according to the article, is that most Americans agreed with INS Commissioner James W. Ziglar, who said: "These weren't immigrants. They were terrorists."

During the 1990s, more than 12 million new immigrants--legal and illegal--settled in the United States, according to estimates based on census data and INS numbers. About 10 million immigrants arrived during the first decade of the 20th century.

After September 11, the US stopped refugee admissions while security measures were re-evaluated. Some 22,000 refugees had been approved for resettlement, and by mid-January 2002, about 800 arrived. To improve security, approved refugees will no longer be allowed to make their own travel arrangements to the US: the International Organization for Migration will arrange travel for them.

The claim of an 18-year old Iraqi who used a false passport to get to the US and seek asylum on the grounds that, if returned to Iraq, he would be conscripted into the military, had his claim rejected by an immigration judge. The judge noted that, if the 18-year old were accepted as a refugee, "then all Iraqis of military age would be entitled to asylum."