Immigration: S Visas for Criminal and Terrorist Informants
Abstract
Following the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City, Congress amended the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) to establish the new "S" nonimmigrant visa category for alien witnesses and informants as part of the Violent Crime Control Act of 1994. Nonimmigrants are admitted for a specific purpose and a temporary period of time. Nonimmigrants -- such as B-2 tourists, F-1 foreign students, A-1 diplomats, H-2A temporary agricultural workers, J-1 exchange visitors, or L intracompany business personnel -- are typically referred to by the letter denoting the subsection of the INA that provides the authority for their admission; hence "S visas" is the abbreviated reference to 101(a)(15)(S) of the INA. In response to the terrorist acts of September 11, 2001, Congress passed legislation making permanent a provision that allows aliens with critical information on criminal or terrorist organizations to come into the United States to provide information to law enforcement officials. This legislation (S. 1424) became P.L. 107-45 on October 1, 2001. The law amends the INA to provide permanent authority for the administration of the "S" visa, which was scheduled to expire on September 13, 2001. On November 29, 2001, Attorney General John Ashcroft announced the "Responsible Cooperators Program" to reach out to persons who may be eligible for the S visa. Up to 200 criminal informants and 50 terrorist informants may be admitted annually. Since FY 1995, almost 900 informants and their accompanying family members have entered on S visas. The report includes a table showing the numbers of informants and family members admitted into the United States each year from FY 1995 through FY 2004. This report will not be regularly updated.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 19, 2005
- Accession Number
- ADA444773
Entities
People
- Karma Ester
Organizations
- Library of Congress