9/11 and U.S. immigration policy
The September 11, 2001 attacks significantly transformed U.S. immigration policy, shifting the focus from primarily economic concerns to national security. Prior to 9/11, debates surrounding immigration largely centered on the perceived negative effects of illegal immigrants on wages and employment. However, the attacks by al-Qaeda introduced a critical security dimension to these discussions, prompting the government to implement stricter immigration regulations and enhance border control measures.
In the wake of 9/11, the U.S. restructured its immigration enforcement framework, notably by creating the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and reconstituting the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) into the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). New policies were introduced, such as mandatory registration for certain immigrant categories, increased scrutiny of visa applications, and measures aimed at identifying and deporting undocumented immigrants, particularly those from predominantly Muslim countries.
The Patriot Act, enacted shortly after the attacks, expanded government surveillance and monitoring capabilities, while programs like the National Security Entry-Exit Regulation System (NSEERS) imposed additional registration requirements on male noncitizens from select countries. These changes faced criticism for potentially leading to discrimination and heightened fears among immigrant communities. Overall, the post-9/11 landscape reflects ongoing tensions between security needs and the principles of immigration, raising ethical questions about the balance between safety and inclusivity.
9/11 and U.S. immigration policy
The Event: Reexamination of US immigration laws from a security perspective following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, on New York City and Washington, DC.
Significance:The fusing of immigration policy to the US war on terrorism—and the resultant tightening of access to the country by foreign students, professionals, and immigrants from areas regarded as most likely to contain potential terrorists—generated a major debate over the goals of immigrant policy, and led to substantial changes in the day-to-day operation of US policies toward the nationals of other countries.
The immigration policy of the United States was already in the process of being revised in 2001, when Middle Eastern operatives of the Muslim extremist organization al-Qaeda hijacked four American jet airliners for use as flying bombs against targets in New York City and Washington, DC, on September 11 of that year. Prior to that moment, however, the main issue driving the national immigration debate had been primarily economic—the charge that the influx of illegal immigrants was driving down US wages and depriving American citizens of employment. To that argument, the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon building added a major national security issue to immigration reform.
The significance of that change in policy direction was quickly dramatized when the US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) was reconstituted as the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and placed under the aegis of the newly created Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on March 1, 2003. Elsewhere, the government moved aggressively to tighten the rules governing admission to the United States, to secure its borders more tightly to prevent hostile aliens from entering the country illegally, and to identify illegal immigrants who were already inside the country. Since the creation of the DHS, experts have estimated that the umbrella security organization's budget has consistently increased, in part due to stricter immigration practices.
Restricting Admission to the United States
The most widely criticized of the government’s post-9/11 actions were proposals—later abandoned—to criminalize entering the United States illegally. Nearly as controversial, however, were administrative reforms mandating special registration of certain categories of immigrants. For example, international students were to register their names and addresses with the government and regularly update that information. Even more draconian were requirements for male immigrants from twenty-four predominantly Muslim countries to be photographed, fingerprinted, and annually interviewed by government officials. The new regulations also made it easier to deport aliens for even minor criminal transgressions. Visa application and renewal procedures were expanded, along with the discretionary authority of US officials stationed abroad to deny visas to applicants unable to meet the heightened security requirements for entry to the United States. Critics have argued that the net result of these moves has been to deny entry or reentry to many valued people because their points of origin happened to be in the Muslim world.
Sealing the Borders and Identifying Illegal Immigrants
A collateral consequence of the 9/11 attacks was that they focused new attention on the large numbers of non-European aliens who were in the United States illegally, thereby generating new calls to bolster border security against unsanctioned immigrants. The focus of these calls was the long US border with Mexico. The US Congress responded in 2006 by authorizing the expansion of a secure fence along the border. Another step taken to advance border security was requiring, on a phased-in basis, US citizens to carry passports when traveling to—and especially when returning from—neighboring Mexico and Canada, which were once free from that requirement. In 2016, the Mexican border continued to be a point of political security concern, as Donald Trump, the Republican candidate for president, argued consistently throughout his campaign that, if elected, he would oversee the building of a great wall along the United States' border with Mexico. He claimed that a large percentage of immigrants crossing the border from Mexico were criminals and even rapists.
To prevent future terrorist attacks on the United States, new and often highly controversial policies were implemented to identify and respond to the growing number of illegal immigrants already inside the country. The Patriot Act, passed less than six weeks after 9/11, expanded the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s authority to monitor people living inside the United States. The National Security Entry-Exit Regulation System (NSEERS) put into effect in 2002 required male noncitizens over the age of sixteen to register with the government. A computerized entry-exit system at ports of entry enhanced the federal government’s ability to identify more easily those staying beyond the time permitted by their visas. As this technology continued to improve, the DHS announced in 2011 that the NSEERS program was no longer necessary; all of the information once obtained manually through the process was now being automatically generated for all visitors to the country, regardless of nationality.
Meanwhile, raids were launched on the sites of companies suspected of employing illegal immigrants, especially at locations judged to be near potential terrorist targets, such as construction areas near Dulles International Airport outside Washington, DC. In this endeavor, federal agents were often assisted by state and local enforcement agencies. In fact, the latter often carried the greater burden. Ironically, federal scrutiny of firms suspected of harboring illegal employees actually declined in the years immediately following 9/11, when the government focused more on identifying likely Arab terrorists.
To heighten national security, Congress passed the Real ID Act in 2005. This law’s main purpose was to standardize procedures across the United States involving the acquisition of driving licenses by specifying the requirements that must be met for state licenses and for identity cards used for such “official purposes” as entering federal buildings and security-sensitive private facilities such as nuclear power plants, and for boarding commercial aircraft. The federal act also authorized federal magistrates to require additional proofs of identity and status of aliens already in the country who are seeking asylum.
As part of the effort to identify removable immigrants, the DHS instituted the Secure Communities program, which would be enforced by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) department, in 2008. The program required cooperation between local law enforcement and the ICE whereby police officers who made arrests would have to immediately share that individual's fingerprints with the ICE as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in order to determine whether the arrestee could be held for federal immigration authorities and possible removal. Critics of the program often pointed out that undocumented immigrants may be too afraid to report crimes out of concern that they could be arrested and possibly removed. While the Secure Communities program in its initial form was brought to an end in late 2014, by 2015 the DHS announced the beginning of what it calls the Priority Enforcement Program, which is meant to be a more discrete version of its predecessor. In this iteration, ICE will still receive fingerprints of arrestees, but the guidelines for deciding who is a priority for removal are more strict; an individual can only be removed if they have been convicted of an offense included in DHS's immigration enforcement priorities.
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