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AAI Protests Immigrant Rule Change

Posted on Wednesday August 21, 2002

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Arab American Institute (AAI) sounded a cautionary note regarding the Immigration and Naturalization Service’s (INS) renewed enforcement of section 265 of the Immigration and Nationality Act. The regulation requires aliens to report a change of address within 10 days.

Because the regulation has gone unenforced for decades, many immigrants are unaware of the reporting requirement. The regulation does not provide for notification by the INS to those affected. Many new immigrants unfamiliar with the rule could be penalized in addition to legal permanent residents who are abroad or on active duty.

Penalties for failing to report a change of address include jail time up to 30 days and possible deportation.

“The civil and criminal penalties for failing to report are unnecessarily severe, may punish the innocent, and could be selectively enforced. If the Department is intent on proceeding with these regulations, steps must be taken to publicize it to immigrant communities,” said Jean AbiNader, AAI managing director.

Given the large volume of misfiled INS forms, the potential exists for immigrants to be penalized or deported without warning. According to a July 27, 2002 article in the San Diego Union-Tribune, the INS has mishandled millions of forms – including 200,000 unfiled change-of-address cards. This is due to the large volume of paperwork and the Service’s lack of resources.

Published in the Federal Register on July 26, 2002, the regulations list punishments for failure to provide the information including the issuance of a removal order against the alien. The regulations are being introduced in the wake of the Justice Department’s highly controversial detentions of individuals with almost an exclusively Arab or Muslim background and the decision to require special registration from persons from “certain designated countries.”

“Since 9/11 the government has been engaged in a series of net casting operations that have to date yielded too few results. When you are looking for a needle in a haystack, adding more hay doesn’t help. These measures can no longer be justified. We should be spending taxpayer dollars on real investigative and enforcement tools,” AbiNader said.