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direction of the President and in consultation with the Vice President,
the Attorney General, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Health
and Human Services, the Secretary of Transportation, and the Director of
the Federal Emergency Management Agency, may establish additional HSC/
PCCs, as appropriate.
The Chairman of each HSC/PCC, with the agreement of its Executive
Secretary, may establish subordinate working groups to assist the PCC in
the performance of its duties.
The Vice President may attend any and all meetings of any entity
established by or under this directive. This directive shall be
construed in a manner consistent with Executive Order 13228.
George W. Bush
Note: This directive was released by the Office of the Press Secretary
on October 30.
<DOC>
[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents]
[frwais.access.gpo.gov]
[Page 1570-1573]
Monday, November 5, 2001
Volume 37--Number 44
Pages 1561-1597
Week Ending Friday, November 2, 2001
Directive on Combating Terrorism Through Immigration Policies
October 29, 2001
Homeland Security Presidential Directive-2
Subject: Combating Terrorism Through Immigration Policies
A. National Policy
The United States has a long and valued tradition of welcoming
immigrants and visitors. But the attacks of September 11, 2001, showed
that some come to the United States to commit terrorist acts, to raise
funds for illegal terrorist activities, or to provide other support for
terrorist operations, here and abroad. It is the policy of the United
States to work aggressively to prevent aliens who engage in or support
terrorist activity from entering the United States and to detain,
prosecute, or deport any such aliens who are within the United States.
1. Foreign Terrorist Tracking Task Force
By November 1, 2001, the Attorney General shall create the Foreign
Terrorist Tracking Task Force (Task Force), with assistance from the
Secretary of State, the Director of Central Intelligence and other
officers of the government, as appropriate. The Task Force shall ensure
that, to the maximum extent permitted by law, Federal agencies
coordinate programs to accomplish the following: 1) deny entry into the
United States of aliens associated with, suspected of being engaged in,
or supporting terrorist activity; and 2) locate, detain, prosecute, or
deport any such aliens already present in the United States.
The Attorney General shall appoint a senior official as the full-
time Director of the Task Force. The Director shall report to the Deputy
Attorney General, serve as a Senior Advisor to the Assistant to the
President for Homeland Security, and maintain direct liaison with the
Commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) on
issues related to immigration and the foreign terrorist presence in the
United States. The Director shall also consult with the Assistant
[[Page 1571]]
Secretary of State for Consular Affairs on issues related to visa
matters.
The Task Force shall be staffed by expert personnel from the
Department of State, the INS, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the
Secret Service, the Customs Service, the Intelligence Community,
military support components, and other Federal agencies as appropriate
to accomplish the Task Force's mission.
The Attorney General and the Director of Central Intelligence shall
ensure, to the maximum extent permitted by law, that the Task Force has
access to all available information necessary to perform its mission,
and they shall request information from State and local governments,
where appropriate.
With the concurrence of the Attorney General and the Director of
Central Intelligence, foreign liaison officers from cooperating
countries shall be invited to serve as liaisons to the Task Force, where
appropriate, to expedite investigation and data sharing.
Other Federal entities, such as the Migrant Smuggling and
Trafficking in Persons Coordination Center and the Foreign Leads
Development Activity, shall provide the Task Force with any relevant
information they possess concerning aliens suspected of engaging in or
supporting terrorist activity.
2. Enhanced INS and Customs Enforcement Capability
The Attorney General and the Secretary of the Treasury, assisted by
the Director of Central Intelligence, shall immediately develop and
implement multi-year plans to enhance the investigative and intelligence
analysis capabilities of the INS and the Customs Service. The goal of
this enhancement is to increase significantly efforts to identify,
locate, detain, prosecute or deport aliens associated with, suspected of
being engaged in, or supporting terrorist activity within the United
States.
The new multi-year plans should significantly increase the number of
Customs and INS special agents assigned to Joint Terrorism Task Forces,
as deemed appropriate by the Attorney General and the Secretary of the
Treasury. These officers shall constitute new positions over and above
the existing on-duty special agent forces of the two agencies.
3. Abuse of International Student Status
The United States benefits greatly from international students who
study in our country. The United States Government shall continue to
foster and support international students.
The Government shall implement measures to end the abuse of student
visas and prohibit certain international students from receiving
education and training in sensitive areas, including areas of study with
direct application to the development and use of weapons of mass
destruction. The Government shall also prohibit the education and
training of foreign nationals who would use such training to harm the
United States or its Allies.
The Secretary of State and the Attorney General, working in
conjunction with the Secretary of Education, the Director of the Office
of Science and Technology Policy, the Secretary of Defense, the
Secretary of Energy, and any other departments or entities they deem
necessary, shall develop a program to accomplish this goal. The program
shall identify sensitive courses of study, and shall include measures
whereby the Department of State, the Department of Justice, and United
States academic institutions, working together, can identify problematic
applicants for student visas and deny their applications. The program
shall provide for tracking the status of a foreign student who receives
a visa (to include the proposed major course of study, the status of the
individual as a full-time student, the classes in which the student
enrolls, and the source of the funds supporting the student's
education).
The program shall develop guidelines that may include control
mechanisms, such as limited duration student immigration status, and may
implement strict criteria for renewing such student immigration status.
The program shall include guidelines for exempting students from
countries or groups of countries from this set of requirements.
In developing this new program of control, the Secretary of State,
the Attorney General, and the Secretary of Education shall consult
[[Page 1572]]
with the academic community and other interested parties. This new
program shall be presented through the Homeland Security Council to the
President within 60 days.
The INS, in consultation with the Department of Education, shall
conduct periodic reviews of all institutions certified to receive
nonimmigrant students and exchange visitor program students. These
reviews shall include checks for compliance with record keeping and
reporting requirements. Failure of institutions to comply may result in
the termination of the institution's approval to receive such students.
4. North American Complementary Immigration Policies
The Secretary of State, in coordination with the Secretary of the
Treasury and the Attorney General, shall promptly initiate negotiations
with Canada and Mexico to assure maximum possible compatibility of
immigration, customs, and visa policies. The goal of the negotiations
shall be to provide all involved countries the highest possible level of
assurance that only individuals seeking entry for legitimate purposes
enter any of the countries, while at the same time minimizing border
restrictions that hinder legitimate trans-border commerce.
As part of this effort, the Secretaries of State and the Treasury
and the Attorney General shall seek to substantially increase sharing of
immigration and customs information. They shall also seek to establish a
shared immigration and customs control database with both countries. The
Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, and the Attorney
General shall explore existing mechanisms to accomplish this goal and,
to the maximum extent possible, develop new methods to achieve optimal
effectiveness and relative transparency. To the extent statutory
provisions prevent such information sharing, the Attorney General and
the Secretaries of State and the Treasury shall submit to the Director
of the Office of Management and Budget proposed remedial legislation.
5. Use of Advanced Technologies for Data Sharing and Enforcement Efforts
The Director of the OSTP, in conjunction with the Attorney General
and the Director of Central Intelligence, shall make recommendations
about the use of advanced technology to help enforce United States
immigration laws, to implement United States immigration programs, to
facilitate the rapid identification of aliens who are suspected of
engaging in or supporting terrorist activity, to deny them access to the
United States, and to recommend ways in which existing government
databases can be best utilized to maximize the ability of the government
to detect, identify, locate, and apprehend potential terrorists in the
United States. Databases from all appropriate Federal agencies, state
and local governments, and commercial databases should be included in
this review. The utility of advanced data mining software should also be
addressed. To the extent that there may be legal barriers to such data
sharing, the Director of the OSTP shall submit to the Director of the
Office of Management and Budget proposed legislative remedies. The study
also should make recommendations, propose timelines, and project
budgetary requirements.
The Director of the OSTP shall make these recommendations to the
President through the Homeland Security Council within 60 days.
6. Budgetary Support
The Office of Management and Budget shall work closely with the
Attorney General, the Secretaries of State and of the Treasury, the
Assistant to the President for Homeland Security, and all other
appropriate agencies to review the budgetary support and identify
changes in legislation necessary for the implementation of this
directive and recommend appropriate support for a multi-year program to
provide the United States a robust capability to prevent aliens who
engage in or support terrorist activity from entering or remaining in
the United States or the smuggling of implements of terrorism into the
United States. The Director of the Office of Management and Budget shall
make an interim report through the Homeland Security Council to the
President on the recommended program within 30 days, and
[[Page 1573]]
shall make a final report through the Homeland Security Council to the
President on the recommended program within 60 days.
George W. Bush
Note: This directive was released by the Office of the Press Secretary
on October 30.
<DOC>
[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents]
[frwais.access.gpo.gov]
[Page 1573-1575]
Monday, November 5, 2001
Volume 37--Number 44
Pages 1561-1597
Week Ending Friday, November 2, 2001
Remarks Announcing the Lessons of Liberty Initiative in Rockville,
Maryland
October 30, 2001
Thank you all very much. Sit down. Behave yourself. [Laughter] Thank
you for the warm welcome. [Laughter] I'm honored to be here to announce
a national effort to bring together veterans and students all across
America during the week of Veterans Day, to give our young examples of
duty and courage at a time when both are sorely needed.
I want to thank Senator Dole for being here. I appreciate his
eloquence and his service to the country. He is a--[applause] I want to
thank the two members of my Cabinet who traveled with me today,
Secretary Principi and Secretary Paige, both of whom represent the best
of public service. I want to thank Congresswoman Connie Morella for
being here, as well.
Rebecca, thank you for opening up your beautiful school. I want to
thank you. And I want to thank the teachers who are here. Teaching is
such a noble profession. And if some of you students are wondering what
you might want to do when you get older, think about teaching.
I also want to thank the students and the veterans and my fellow
Americans. I can assure you it makes some of us old guys feel warm in
our hearts when we see the enthusiasm you have for your school and the
love you have for your country. I am proud to be standing with the
Patriots.
We're a nation of patriots. The attacks of September the 11th and
the attacks that have followed were designed to break our spirit. But
instead, they've created a new spirit in America. We have a renewed
spirit of patriotism. We see it in the countless flags that are flying
everywhere in America. We hear it in familiar phrases that move us more
deeply than ever before. We all know that this is one Nation, under God.
And we pray that God will bless America, the land that we all love,
regardless of our race, regardless of our religion, regardless of where
we live.
We have a renewed appreciation of the character of America. We are a
generous people, a thoughtful people who hurt and share the sadness when
people lose their life or when people are hurt. We've helped each other
in every way we know, in donations, in acts of kindness, in public
memorials, in private prayer. We have shown in difficult times that
we're not just a world power, that we're a good and kind and courageous
people.
As we pursue the enemy in Afghanistan, we feed the innocents. As we
try to bring justice to those who have harmed us, we find those who need
help. The events of these 7 weeks have shown something else. They have
shown a new generation, your generation, that America and the cause of
freedom have determined enemies, that there are people in this world who
hate what America stands for. They hate our success; they hate our
liberty. We have learned all too suddenly that there are evil people who
have no regard for human life and will do whatever it takes to try to
bring this mighty Nation to its knees.
On the Korean War Memorial in Washington are these words: ``Freedom
is not free.'' Our commitment to freedom has always made us a target of
tyranny and intolerance. Anyone who sets out to destroy freedom must
eventually attack America, because we're freedom's home. And we must
always be freedom's home and freedom's defender. We must never flinch in
the face of adversity, and we won't.
You've been learning this by studying your history--at least some of
you by studying your history. [Laughter] Now you're learning the price
of freedom by following the news. You're learning that to be an American
citizen in a time of war is to have duties. You're learning how a strong
country responds to a crisis by being alert and calm, resolute and
Other Popular 2001 Presidential Documents Documents:
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