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CRS Reports: Terrorist Watchlist Checks and Terrorist Grounds for Exclusion of Aliens

Follow up to previous postings on Terrorist Watchlist see the following related CRS reports: Terrorist Watchlist Checks and Air Passenger Prescreening, December 30, 2009: “Considerable controversy continues to surround U.S. air passenger prescreening and terrorist watchlist checks. In the past, such controversy centered around diverted international flights and misidentified passengers. Another issue surfaced on Christmas Day 2009, when an air passenger attempted to ignite an explosive device on a Detroit-bound flight from Amsterdam. Although U.S. counterterrorism officials reportedly had created a record on the air passenger in the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE), which is maintained at the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), it does not appear that the NCTC ever nominated him for entry into the U.S. government’s consolidated Terrorist Screening Database, which is maintained at the Terrorist Screening Center. Therefore, he would not have been placed on watchlists used by front-line, air passenger prescreening agencies, principally the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Transportation Security Administration (TSA), and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).”

  • Immigration: Terrorist Grounds for Exclusion and Removal of Aliens, January 12, 2010: “The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) spells out a strict set of admissions criteria and exclusion rules for all foreign nationals who come permanently to the United States as immigrants (i.e., legal permanent residents) or temporarily as nonimmigrants. Notably, any alien who engages in terrorist activity, or is a representative or member of a designated foreign terrorist organization, is generally inadmissible. After the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the INA was broadened to deny entry to representatives of groups that endorse terrorism, prominent
    individuals who endorse terrorism, and (in certain circumstances) the spouses and children of aliens who are removable on terrorism grounds. The INA also contains grounds for inadmissibility based on foreign policy concerns.”
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