Crackdown Targets 46 Terror Groups
— -- The Sept. 11 terror attacks had a profound impact on the United States, and the effects are still rippling across American society in large and small ways. Here is a periodic wrap-up of some of them.
Immigration Crackdown Targets 46 Terror Groups
W A S H I N G T O N, Oct. 31 — Attorney General John Ashcroft announced a sweeping new immigration crackdown today, designating 46 terrorist groups whose members and supporters will be banned from entering the country.
Ashcroft said the designation "will enable us to prevent aliens who are affiliated with them from entering the United States." See letter Ashcroft sent to Secretary of State Colin Powell.
The attorney general also announced the creation of a new foreign terrorist tracking task force to "neutralize the threat of terrorist aliens."
Ashcroft said the task force will be charged with denying entry to the United States of members or representatives of terrorist organizations and aliens who are suspected of having engaged in terrorist activities or having provided support to terrorist activities.
"We will detain, prosecute, and deport terrorist aliens who are already inside the national border," Ashcroft said. "America will not allow terrorists to use our hospitality as a weapon against us."
Ashcroft said the task force will be headed by Steven C. McCraw, the deputy assistant director of the intelligence branch of the FBI's Investigative Services Division.
Immigration Commissioner James Ziglar said the task force will provide immigration officials with "real-time access to information" that will enable them to keep suspected terrorists out of the country.
"We're not talking about immigration," he said. "We're talking about evil."
Ashcroft said the 46 groups include those linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, those whose assets have been frozen by presidential order, and others who U.S. authorities have determined have engaged in terrorist activities.
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