WASHINGTON – With great fanfare in November, Attorney General John Ashcroft invited undocumented immigrants to become tipsters in the war against terrorism – and thereby earn a chance to become U.S. citizens.
Two months later, no applications have been approved under the "Responsible Cooperators Program" that Ashcroft unveiled, Justice Department officials said in recent interviews.
In making his appeal for informants, Ashcroft said, "People who have the courage to make the right choice deserve to be welcomed as guests in our country and one day to become fellow citizens."
With the announcement, the Bush administration expanded an existing Immigration and Naturalization Service program, known as the s-visa. Under the policy, eligible immigrants can either become green card holders or even permanent citizens in return for providing information about criminal activity or terrorism.
"We're still in the early stages," said Justice Department spokesman Dan Nelson. "There may be some leads that could become visa applications. There may be something in the pipeline – but the FBI or U.S. attorneys have not yet deemed it reliable or critical information."
Despite the immediate publicity surrounding Ashcroft's appeal, immigration experts said they are not surprised that no one has been identified as eligible for the program.
Critics deride the program as the "snitch" visa.
The Bush administration's announcement "furthered the impression there are large numbers of people with useful information, particularly people from the Middle East, and that they are withholding that information," said Hussein Ibish, spokesman for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.
"They are bribing these people with offers," Ibish said. "I'm not absolutely horrified by it, but I think it's a long shot at best. Anyone who really knows anything (about possible terrorist activities) is probably not going to be swayed by an offer of expedited citizenship."
Congress initially approved the program in the mid-1990s, and set an annual limit of 250 on the number of informants who could be awarded visas, excluding family members. Under law, 50 slots are slated for terrorist cases, and 200 for other criminal matters. The visas expire after three years.
Other critics say the program probably will never attract too many takers because the process, in part, is just too complex.
To become eligible for an s-visa, applicants must show they can provide reliable information that could lead to criminal convictions and also prove that their informant's role may place them in danger. Moreover, the informant, who need not actually live in the country, must be sponsored by a law-enforcement agency that would monitor the person's whereabouts.
In San Diego County, only "two or three" s-visas have been approved in more than a dozen years. They were linked to information sought by authorities for drug-related or public corruption cases, according to a law-enforcement source familiar with the program.
"They make it sound like you snitch on your friends and colleagues, and they will roll out the red carpet," said Maryland attorney Sheela Murtha, who specializes in immigration cases. "I'd like us to protect innocent Americans from any kind of terrorism, but I don't know it's going to be that easy with a program like this."
Recent trends point to increased participation in the s-visa program, said the Justice Department's Nelson.
During the 2001 fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, Justice Department officials said more than 106 informants were awarded the visas, compared with 21 in 2000. Fifty visas were awarded in 1999.
Figures for this fiscal year were not available, he said.
The FBI's questioning of hundreds of mostly Middle Eastern men detained since the attacks on various immigration violations apparently has not resulted in s-visa requests, according to Ibish of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.
Ibish said the program could yield better results if they focus on people in Yemen or Somalia who might have information about terrorism. "The people there might be more helpful (if) there are inducements to come here," he said.
