For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
October 30, 2001
Homeland Security Presidential Directive-2
October 29, 2001
SUBJECT: Combating Terrorism Through Immigration Policies
A. National Policy
The United States has a long and valued tradition of welcoming
immigrants and visitors. But the attacks of September 11,
2001, showed that some come to the United States to commit terrorist
acts, to raise funds for illegal terrorist activities, or to provide
other support for terrorist operations, here and abroad. It is the
policy of the United States to work aggressively to prevent aliens who
engage in or support terrorist activity from entering the United States
and to detain, prosecute, or deport any such aliens who are within the
United States.
1. Foreign Terrorist Tracking Task Force
By November 1, 2001, the Attorney General shall create the Foreign
Terrorist Tracking Task Force (Task Force), with assistance from the
Secretary of State, the Director of Central Intelligence and other
officers of the government, as appropriate. The Task Force
shall ensure that, to the maximum extent permitted by law, Federal
agencies coordinate programs to accomplish the following: 1)
deny entry into the United States of aliens associated with, suspected
of being engaged in, or supporting terrorist activity; and 2) locate,
detain, prosecute, or deport any such aliens already present in the
United States.
The Attorney General shall appoint a senior official as the
full-time Director of the Task Force. The Director shall
report to the Deputy Attorney General, serve as a Senior Advisor to the
Assistant to the President for Homeland Security, and maintain direct
liaison with the Commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization
Service (INS) on issues related to immigration and the foreign
terrorist presence in the United States. The Director shall
also consult with the Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs
on issues related to visa matters.
The Task Force shall be staffed by expert personnel from the
Department of State, the INS, the Federal Bureau of Investiga-tion, the
Secret Service, the Customs Service, the Intelligence Community,
military support components, and other Federal agencies as appropriate
to accomplish the Task Force's mission.
The Attorney General and the Director of Central Intelligence shall
ensure, to the maximum extent permitted by law, that the Task Force has
access to all available information necessary to perform its mission,
and they shall request information from State and local governments,
where appropriate.
With the concurrence of the Attorney General and the Director of
Central Intelligence, foreign liaison officers from cooperating
countries shall be invited to serve as liaisons to the Task Force,
where appropriate, to expedite investigation and data sharing.
Other Federal entities, such as the Migrant Smuggling and
Trafficking in Persons Coordination Center and the Foreign Leads
Development Activity, shall provide the Task Force with any relevant
information they possess concerning aliens suspected of engaging in or
supporting terrorist activity.
2. Enhanced INS and Customs Enforcement Capability
The Attorney General and the Secretary of the Treasury, assisted by
the Director of Central Intelligence, shall immediately develop and
implement multi-year plans to enhance the investigative and
intelligence analysis capabilities of the INS and the Customs
Service. The goal of this enhancement is to increase
significantly efforts to identify, locate, detain, prosecute or deport
aliens associated with, suspected of being engaged in, or supporting
terrorist activity within the United States.
The new multi-year plans should significantly increase the number
of Customs and INS special agents assigned to Joint Terrorism Task
Forces, as deemed appropriate by the Attorney General and the Secretary
of the Treasury. These officers shall constitute new
positions over and above the existing on-duty special agent forces of
the two agencies.
3. Abuse of International Student Status
The United States benefits greatly from international students who
study in our country. The United States Government shall
continue to foster and support international students.
The Government shall implement measures to end the abuse of student
visas and prohibit certain international students from receiving
education and training in sensitive areas, including areas of study
with direct application to the development and use of weapons of mass
destruction. The Government shall also prohibit the
education and training of foreign nationals who would use such training
to harm the United States or its Allies.
The Secretary of State and the Attorney General, working in
conjunction with the Secretary of Education, the Director of the Office
of Science and Technology Policy, the Secretary of Defense, the
Secretary of Energy, and any other departments or entities they deem
necessary, shall develop a program to accomplish this
goal. The program shall identify sensitive courses of study,
and shall include measures whereby the Depart-ment of State, the
Department of Justice, and United States academic institutions, working
together, can identify problematic applicants for student visas and
deny their applications. The program shall provide for
tracking the status of a foreign student who receives a visa (to
include the proposed major course of study, the status of the
individual as a full-time student, the classes in which the student
enrolls, and the source of the funds supporting the student's
education).
The program shall develop guidelines that may include control
mechanisms, such as limited duration student immigration status, and
may implement strict criteria for renewing such student immigration
status. The program shall include guidelines for exempting
students from countries or groups of countries from this set of
requirements.
In developing this new program of control, the Secretary of State,
the Attorney General, and the Secretary of Education shall consult with
the academic community and other interested parties. This
new program shall be presented through the Homeland Security Council to
the President within 60 days.
The INS, in consultation with the Department of Education, shall
conduct periodic reviews of all institutions certified to receive
nonimmigrant students and exchange visitor program
students. These reviews shall include checks for compliance
with record keeping and reporting requirements. Failure of
institutions to comply may result in the termination of the
institution's approval to receive such students.
4. North American Complementary Immigration Policies
The Secretary of State, in coordination with the Secretary of the
Treasury and the Attorney General, shall promptly initiate negotiations
with Canada and Mexico to assure maximum possible compatibility of
immigration, customs, and visa policies. The goal of the
negotiations shall be to provide all involved countries the highest
possible level of assurance that only individuals seeking entry for
legitimate purposes enter any of the countries, while at the same time
minimizing border restrictions that hinder legitimate trans-border
commerce.
As part of this effort, the Secretaries of State and the Treasury
and the Attorney General shall seek to substantially increase sharing
of immigration and customs information. They shall also seek
to establish a shared immigration and customs control data-base with
both countries. The Secretary of State, the Secretary of the
Treasury, and the Attorney General shall explore existing mechanisms to
accomplish this goal and, to the maximum extent possible, develop new
methods to achieve optimal effectiveness and relative
transparency. To the extent statutory provisions prevent
such information sharing, the Attorney General and the Secretaries of
State and the Treasury shall submit to the Director of the Office of
Management and Budget proposed remedial legislation.
5. Use of Advanced Technologies for Data Sharing and
Enforcement Efforts
The Director of the OSTP, in conjunction with the Attorney General
and the Director of Central Intelligence, shall make recommendations
about the use of advanced technology to help enforce United States
immigration laws, to implement United States immigration programs, to
facilitate the rapid identification of aliens who are suspected of
engaging in or supporting terrorist activity, to deny them access to
the United States, and to recommend ways in which existing government
databases can be best utilized to maximize the ability of the
government to detect, identify, locate, and apprehend potential
terrorists in the United States. Databases from all
appropriate Federal agencies, state and local govern-ments, and
commercial databases should be included in this review. The
utility of advanced data mining software should also be
addressed. To the extent that there may be legal barriers to
such data sharing, the Director of the OSTP shall submit to the
Director of the Office of Management and Budget proposed legislative
remedies. The study also should make recommendations,
propose timelines, and project budgetary requirements.
The Director of the OSTP shall make these recommendations to the
President through the Homeland Security Council within 60 days.
6. Budgetary Support
The Office of Management and Budget shall work closely with the
Attorney General, the Secretaries of State and of the Treasury, the
Assistant to the President for Homeland Security, and all other
appropriate agencies to review the budgetary support and identify
changes in legislation necessary for the implementation of this
directive and recommend appropriate support for a multi-year program to
provide the United States a robust capability to prevent aliens who
engage in or support terrorist activity from entering or remaining in
the United States or the smuggling of implements of terrorism into the
United States. The Director of the Office of Management and
Budget shall make an interim report through the Homeland Security
Council to the President on the recommended program within 30 days, and
shall make a final report through the Homeland Security Council to the
President on the recommended program within 60 days.
GEORGE W. BUSH
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