Immigration and Citizenship
For Release Sunday, January 20, 2002
by Allan Wernick, J.D
The INS Adds 314,000 Names to the NCIC List
Who are the 314,000 “absconders” whose names the Immigration and Naturalization Service says it’s been putting in the FBI database, the NCIC? Few, if any, are terrorists. A small percentage have criminal records. Most are overstayed visitors, asylum applicants who lost their cases, and people who entered the United States illegally. Under the INS plan, law-enforcement officials, including the local police, will be looking for these deportable immigrants and turning them over to the INS. Immigrants throughout the United States are fearful of arrest and deportation. Is this fear justified? How did these individuals get on this list? How is it that they are at large?
The new policy won’t affect most of the estimated 8 million undocumented immigrants in the United States. The absconders are individuals who have already been through the complicated and often lengthy deportation (now called removal) process. Someone not yet ordered deported by an immigration judge is not at risk.
Most people end up in removal proceedings in one of three ways: Some are referred to removal proceedings after the INS denies their application for asylum, permanent residence or citizenship. These individuals are rarely detained. Others are picked up in factory investigations. These poor, hardworking souls are usually detained, but often get released on bond. Finally, we have those with criminal records, many picked up right from jail. “Criminal aliens” are often detained without bond and remain detained until they either win their case or are deported.
When an immigration judge orders a person removed, it is up to the INS to enforce that order. Those already in INS custody are sent home as soon as the INS gets travel papers from the detainee’s home country. Those out on bond either leave on their own or receive a letter from the INS asking them to appear for deportation. If they fail to appear, they are considered absconders, and, until now, the INS did little to find them.