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© St. Petersburg Times, published November 30, 2001
WASHINGTON -- Foreigners who help catch terrorists can be rewarded with U.S. citizenship, Attorney General John Ashcroft promised Thursday.
Even illegal immigrants, he said, can avoid deportation through tips to federal investigators about al-Qaida or other terrorists.
"We're asking all non-U.S. citizens to come forward," Ashcroft told reporters at a Justice Department briefing to publicize the initiative. "People who have the courage to make the right choice deserve to be welcomed as guests into our country and perhaps to one day become fellow citizens."
Many immigration lawyers praise the approach, seeing it as a carrot that promotes cooperation, unlike detention and threats of imprisonment, which coerce it.
"It's a tool the government can and should use under the right circumstances," said Cleveland immigration lawyer David W. Leopold, who represents 11 Israelis arrested for immigration violations in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
President Bush last month signed an amendment to the Immigration and Nationality Act, renewing the so-called S Visa, which permits favorable immigration treatment for foreigners who cooperate with U.S. law enforcement. Ashcroft dubbed the initiative, begun in 1994, the "Responsible Cooperators Program."
Immigration workers often call it the "snitch visa."
"Terrorism rarely goes entirely unnoticed," he said, "and non-citizens are often ideally suited to observe the precursors to, or early stages of, terrorist activity" because of their cultural backgrounds and language fluency.
The information does not have to lead to an arrest or conviction of a suspected terrorist. The only requirement is that it is useful and reliable to the investigation, Ashcroft said.
The program is intended to coax noncitizens to come forward regardless of their immigration status.
The extended visa would allow recipients to stay in the United States for up to three years. During that period, visa holders would be allowed to apply for permanent residency and then citizenship, Ashcroft said.
"They may rest assured that the United States welcomes any reliable and useful information that they can provide," Ashcroft said. "In return, we will help them make America their home."
Informants who do not qualify for the visa because of immigration charges could be paroled or receive deferred prosecution.