Terror-state aliens got U.S. amnesty

The U.S. government has granted blanket temporary immigration amnesties to aliens from Sudan and Somalia, two countries known to have been havens for al Qaeda terrorists.

On March 17, Gen. Tommy Franks, head of the,U.S. Central Command conducting the war in Afghanistan, told the BBC that he had evidence of al Qaeda cells in Somalia. "We have known of links to al Qaeda in and through Somalia for a considerable period of time," he said. Osama bin Laden himself -used to live in Sudan, and that country's regime is listed by the State Department as a sponsor of terrorism.

Somalis in the United States were first granted the special temporary amnesty on Sept. 16, 1991. Sudanese in the United States were first granted the amnesty on Nov. 4, 1997. Since then, the amnesties periodically have been extended, with little public notice or fanfare, even as U.S. administrations have changed.

Just before the September 11 terrorist attacks, the Bush Administration extended again these temporary amnesties to aliens, from Sudan and Somalia. In the case of Somalia, it "re-designated" the country, which made many thousands of additional aliens eligible for amnesty.

As a result, Somali and Sudanese nationals who entered the United States illegally, or who overstayed the original terms of their temporary legal visas, are currently free to live and work in the United States.

The aliens were granted the temporary amnesty under a program called Temporary Protected Status (TPS).

Somalis and Sudanese

Somalis and Sudanese are far from the only aliens currently enjoying a TPS amnesty in the United States. The special status has also been extended to aliens from seven other countries, including El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Angola, Burundi, Sierra Leone, and Montserrat. The senior President Bush first listed Somalia for TPS status, and the younger President Bush first listed El Salvador for TPS last year. The rest were all first listed by President Clinton, then later renewed by the younger President Bush.

TPS was enacted as part of a 1990 immigration law that empowers the attorney general to grant temporary legal residence in the United States to aliens from a country suffering from a war, natural disaster, epidemic or other disturbance. Unlike asylum status, which is granted only to individuals who can demonstrate that they personally have a well-founded fear of persecution in their home country, TPS is automatically granted to all aliens from a listed country provided they were in the United States at the time of their country's listing and can pass a rudimentary background check.

In a website posting, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) says that aliens from TPS-designated countries who arrived in the United States in the right time period are eligible to receive the amnesty unless they have been "convicted of any felony or two or more misdemeanors committed in the United States" or are "a persecutor, terrorist or otherwise subject to one of several security-related bars-to asylum" or are "subject to one of several criminal-related grounds of inadmissibility for which a waiver is not available."

But there are questions about the effectiveness of the background check by which the INS determines whether an applicant falls into one of these categories. INS official Dan Kane told HUMAN EVENTS that after an alien applies for TPS, a background check is done that involves both the FBI and the CIA. But no effort is made to get information about the applicant's record from his native country. "It has nothing to do with the home governments," he said. "It's an FBI and a CIA background check. I can't say anything more about it."

Such a background check would have been unlikely, for example, to screen out the 19 September 11 hijackers had they been TPS applicants. None of them were known to have committed previous felonies in the United States, and the CIA had not warned the INS that any of them were terrorists.

Furthermore, many applicants can stay in the United States for extended periods of time before the background check is even conducted. Due to a large backlog for countries with large numbers of TPS beneficiaries, many applicants who have resided here for months or even years have yet to be screened.

Honduras and Nicaragua were granted TPS status in 1998. But of the approximately 150,000 Honduran and Nicaraguan applicants for a TPS amnesty, there were still .15,631 applicants awaiting final approval as of July 8. INS can't say if their background checks have been completed.

El Salvador was granted TPS status in March 2001. But out of 267,339 Salvadoran applicants, 166,472 were still waiting for final approval. Again, INS can't say if their background checks have been completed.1

While the backgrounds of these TPS amnesty applicants are being conducted, the applicants are allowed to stay and work in the United States.

On March 2 of last year, when Bush announced that El Salvador would be given TPS status, the INS said, "It covers as many as 150,000 potential applicants." That estimate proved to be more than 100,000 lower than the actual number that applied.