02 June 2003
Justice Department Reviews Treatment of Alien Detainees
(FBI official refutes allegations of insufficient priority) (1200) By Stuart Gorin Washington File Staff Writer Washington -- The Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) issued a report June 2 saying it found "significant problems" in the treatment of aliens being held on immigration charges in connection with the investigation of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States. The report says while the OIG recognizes the tremendous challenges authorities faced as they mobilized to prevent additional attacks during a chaotic period, the Justice Department "can learn from the experience." The OIG made a series of recommendations to address the issues it examined. In response, Barbara Comstock, the Justice Department's director of public affairs, said the report is fully consistent "with what the courts have ruled over and over -- that our actions are fully within the law and necessary to protect the American people." Those detained were illegal aliens, Comstock said, all of them charged with criminal violations or civil violations of federal immigration law. "Detention of illegal aliens is lawful," she added. "We detained illegal aliens encountered during the September 11 terrorist investigation until it was determined they were not involved in terrorist activity, did not have relevant knowledge of terrorist activity, or it was determined that their removal was appropriate." Speaking to journalists on background, an official of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said he respectfully disagreed with some of the inspector general's findings, including allegations that the FBI did not adequately staff or assign sufficient priority to its process for clearing the detainees of a connection to terrorism. The FBI official said thousands of investigators were on the job around the clock and needed time to resolve issues. He added that investigating the anthrax letters scare that faced the nation in the wake of the September 11 attacks added to the investigators' burden. The FBI is "not apologetic," the official added, about detaining the aliens and enforcing the law, in an atmosphere of trying to prevent additional terrorist attacks. He pointed out that a second wave of terror could come from people who fit the description of those being detained. The OIG report stated that in connection with the terrorism investigation, 762 aliens were detained for various immigration offenses, including overstaying their visas and entering the country illegally. The report said that the FBI made little attempt to distinguish between aliens who were subjects of the terrorism investigation and those encountered coincidentally, and that the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) did not consistently serve the detainees with notice of the charges under which they were being held within its stated goal of 72 hours. The report also said some detainees alleged physical and verbal abuse by correctional officers at the Metropolitan Detention Center in New York. The OIG spent one year from March 2002 to March 2003 conducting interviews with law enforcement officials, detainees and representatives of human rights organizations in preparing its report. The recommendations made in the report include developing uniform arrest and detainee classification policies, improving information sharing among federal agencies on detainee issues, improving the FBI clearance process, clarifying procedures for processing detainee cases, revising Federal Bureau of Prisons procedures for confining aliens arrested in immigration charges who are suspected of having ties to terrorism, and improving oversight of detainees housed in contract facilities. Comstock issued the following statement regarding the OIG report: "The Justice Department believes that the Inspector General report is fully consistent with what courts have ruled over and over -- that our actions are fully within the law and necessary to protect the American people. Our policy is to use all legal tools available to protect innocent Americans from terrorist attacks. We make no apologies for finding every legal way possible to protect the American public from further terrorist attacks. "The Inspector General report clearly recognizes the Department was operating under the most difficult of circumstances. Under these unprecedented and extraordinary circumstances, the law was scrupulously followed and respected while aggressively protecting innocent Americans from another terrorist attack. "Those detained were illegal aliens. They were all charged with criminal violations or civil violations of federal immigration law, such as: eluding previous deportation orders; staying past the expiration date on their visas; entering the country illegally without inspection; or, entering the country illegally with invalid immigration documents. "Detention of illegal aliens is lawful. We detained illegal aliens encountered during the 9/11 terrorist investigation until it was determined they were not involved in terrorist activity, did not have relevant knowledge of terrorist activity, or it was determined that their removal was appropriate. The Report includes the legal analysis by the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) that determined it is completely lawful to detain aliens after a removal order (both within and beyond the 90-day removal period) to investigate whether they are involved in terrorism. OLC is the office at the Justice Department that considers and sets forth the definitive legal position of the Department of Justice to resolve any legal differences between components of the Department. "The Department's Office of Legal Counsel concluded that: 1. The Department may detain an alien for the full 90 day statutory 'removal period' even if the Department could remove the alien more quickly, despite the belief of some individuals within the INS that the Department must act with 'reasonable dispatch'; and 2. The Department may take more than 90 days to remove an alien, even when the alien could be removed within 90 days, if the delay is related to investigating whether the alien has ties to terrorism or many other legitimate purposes related to effecting national immigration laws and policies. "There is no automatic right of an illegal alien in our country to be released on bond during removal proceedings. This is considered to be 'discretionary relief.' It would have been irresponsible to release from custody or remove from the country illegal aliens who were believed by the FBI to be connected to the September 11 attacks or to terrorism. We could not take the risk that we might release or inadvertently remove an alien who was involved in or had knowledge of the attacks. "Illegal aliens who are not detained, flee. A report by the Inspector General issued this past February demonstrates that aliens who are not detained usually flee and elude deportation. The report noted that 94% of detained aliens were deported; while only 13% of non-detained aliens were deported. "The February Inspector General report found that high risk aliens were particularly unlikely to be found in order to be deported: -- Only 6% removed of those ordered deported from countries that are state sponsors of terrorism; -- Only 35% removed of those with criminal records; -- Only 3% removed of those who were denied asylum. -- Despite recommendations from the 1996 report, over 5 years later the Inspector General found the INS still remained 'ineffective at removing nondetained aliens.' "As we stated from the start, our policy was to use all legal tools available to protect the American people from additional terrorist attacks. The consequences of not doing so could mean life or death." The entire OIG report can be viewed at: The September 11 Detainees [PDF 13.2 Mb] (The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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