- Washington (PTI) - US law enforcement
authorities will expel about 1000 "dangerous" illegal immigrants,
mainly from Pakistan and Middle East, which have been identified by officials
as al Qaeda strongholds.
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- Under the "Absconder Apprehension
Initiative", the Justice Department and FBI would focus on about 6,000
immigrants, from countries identified as al-qaeda's strongholds, out of
which 1,000 would be deported next week.
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- The arrests will begin with the group
of 1,000 illegal immigrants, mostly from the Middle East and Pakistan,
"who are believed to be the most dangerous because they are convicted
felons," officials were quoted by the Washington Post as saying.
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- However, the majority of the absconders
are from Latin America.
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- According to estimates by the Immigration
and Naturalization Service there are an estimated 314,000 foreign nationals,
known as "absconders," who have ignored court orders to leave
the country.
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- The "Absconder Apprehension Initiative,"
the paper said, is the latest example of the Justice Department's wide-ranging
efforts to thwart terrorism by increasing its focus on domestic intelligence
gathering.
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- This campaign has involved, in part,
compiling information on foreign nationals living in the US both legally
and illegally.
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- US officials have also formed special
"apprehension teams" that include agents from the FBI, the US
Marshals Service and the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
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- Immigrants living here illegally but
with no links to terrorism will be swiftly deported through normal procedures,
according to the memo by Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson, which
is quoted by the Post.
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- But if the FBI decides that an immigrant
should be investigated further, Federal prosecutors will seek to charge
the person with a felony for filing to depart the country as ordered by
US attorneys' offices.
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- The memo also asks US attorneys' offices
to "consider whether the absconder has engaged in criminal conduct
aside from immigration violation during his stay in the country."
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- Until September 11, the US treated violations
of immigration laws with benign neglect as long as the illegal immigrant
posed no law and order problem. Distrust of foreigners, particularly nationals
of countries in the "belt of fanaticism" that produces militants
has changed all that.
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- Copyright © 2002 Press Trust of
India Ltd. All rights reserved.
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