The USA PATRIOT Act was passed by the United States Congress in 2001 as a response to the September 11, 2001 attacks. It has ten titles, each containing numerous sections. Title IV: Protecting the Border aims to prevent terrorism in the USA through immigration regulations. The provisions of the title generally increase the difficulty of entering the country for those known to have, or suspected of having, terrorist intent.
Title IV amends large parts of the Immigration and Nationality Act, giving more law enforcement and investigative power to the United States Attorney General and to the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Criticisms of the title include its lack of mention of judicial review for groups designated as terrorist and its sections that mandate study of potential future legislative enhancements rather than enforcement action.
Subtitle A--Protecting the Northern Border
The Attorney General was authorized to waive any cap on the number of full-time employees (FTEs) assigned to the Immigration and Naturalization Service on the Northern border of the United States (the country to the north of the U.S. is Canada). Enough funds were also set aside to triple the maximum number of Border Patrol personnel, Customs Service personnel and INS inspectors along with an additional US$50,000,000 funding for the INS and the U.S. Customs Service to improve technology for monitoring the Northern Border and acquiring additional equipment at the Northern Border. The INS was also given the authority to authorise overtime payments of up to an extra US$30,000 a year to INS employees.
Access was given to the Department of State and the INS to certain identifying information in the criminal history records of visa applicants and applicants for admission to the United States. The information that may be exchanged include the criminal history record information contained in the National Crime Information Center's Interstate Identification Index (NCIC-III), Wanted Persons File and any other files maintained by the National Crime Information Center. Such information is provided as an extract from an automated visa lookout system or other appropriate database, and is provided free of charge. However, for the Department of State to obtain the full criminal record, it must first submit the applicant's fingerprints to the Criminal Justice Information Services Division of the FBI. The Department of State was required to form final regulations that govern the procedures for taking fingerprints and the conditions with which the department was allowed to use such information. The final regulations are specified in 22 CFR 40.5. Additionally, a technology standard to become the technology basis for a cross-agency, cross-platform electronic system was mandated to be developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to be used to verify the identity of persons applying for a United States for the purposes of conducting background checks, confirming identity, and ensuring that a person has not received a visa under a different name. This report was released on November 13, 2002, however, according to NIST, this was later "determined that the fingerprint system used was not as accurate as current state-of-the-art fingerprint systems and is approximately equivalent to commercial fingerprint systems available in 1998" This report was later superseded by section 303(a) of the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002.
Subtitle B--Enhanced immigration provisions
Terrorism definitions
The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) was retroactively amended to disallow aliens who are part representatives of a foreign organization or any group who endorses acts of terrorism the ability to enter the United States. This includes any alien who has used their prominence to persuade others to support terrorist activities. The child or spouse of such an alien is also inadmissible to the U.S. for a period of 5 years since the alien's last known terrorist action, though this does not apply in cases where the spouse or child was not aware such activities were being undertaken. An exception is also made in cases where a consulate official or the U.S. Attorney General is aware the alien has renounced their terrorist activities. Any alien who the Secretary of State, after consultation with the Attorney General, or the Attorney General, after consultation with the Secretary of State, determines has been associated with a terrorist organization and intends while in the United States to engage in activities that could endanger the welfare, safety, or security of the United States is also inadmissible.