US to use 50-yr-old law to keep tabs on foreigners
[ TUESDAY, JULY 23, 2002 11:11:07 AM ]

WASHINGTON: The US Immigration and Naturalisation Service (INS) is stepping up enforcement of a 50-year-old law requiring foreign residents to alert the government within 10 days when they change addresses.

The new policy was signalled by a proposed rule change announced on Monday by Attorney General John Ashcroft. The rule will require the government to update nearly three dozen immigration forms to better explain and give notice to foreigners that they must report a change of residence to the government.

"By clarifying the existing requirement that non-citizens report their addresses to the INS, we are able to increase our ability to locate quickly an alien if removal proceedings must be initiated," Ashcroft said. The government did not announce an increase in INS agents or employees to help accommodate the change.

A Justice department official said the rule change was meant to "shift the responsibility from the government to the immigrant for making sure the government knows where the person is located". The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the rule is meant as a warning that foreigners who fail to comply could face deportation.

Immigrant advocacy groups said the policy is overreaching. "The attorney general is threatening to put people in jail and have them deported for the equivalent of having an overdue library book," said Angela Kelley, a director of the National Immigration Forum in Washington.