NCJ Number
200303
Date Published
April 2003
Length
37 pages
Annotation
This report examines the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) program to interview aliens with characteristics similar to those of the hijackers on September 11, 2001.
Abstract
The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) compiled a list of aliens for the DOJ to interview for the objective of gathering information. Reports on the interviews indicate that not all interviewees perceived that the interview was truly voluntary and feared repercussions if they did not cooperate. This report examines the criteria used by DOJ to compile the list of nonimmigrant aliens to be questioned. It also examines whether law enforcement officers complied with DOJ guidelines regarding the interviews and their voluntary nature. This report also presents the current status of the interview process and offers preliminary results on some of the data. Results show that demographic and visa information on the September 11th hijackers formed the criteria for compiling the list of aliens to be interviewed. Specifically, criteria included type of visa, gender, age, and date of entry into the United States. Results also indicate that officers did follow DOJ procedures for conducting the interviews, but expressed concerns about the quality of the interview questions and the usefulness of the information. The current status of the interview process is unknown because of problems with the dataset, which include duplicate names and data entry errors. As such, it is difficult to tell how many interviews are left to conduct. In conclusion, the authors note that oversight of the project is difficult and the results of the project are currently difficult to estimate. What is known, however, is that public views of the interview project are mixed, with many complaining about civil rights violations. 4 Appendices, 1 table