Via Perverse Access Memory, I found the news about snitch visas for informants about criminals and terrorists.
The logic looked impeccable: Foreign terrorists lurk among foreigners, and foreigners want to live in America. So why not give foreigners a visa in return for ratting out suspected terrorists?
The idea, it turns out, has sputtered in practice so badly in the last 15 months that some experts think it raises questions about the wisdom of this tactic in the Bush administration’s war on terrorism.
The S visas —- nicknamed “snitch visas” and good for three years of legal U.S. residence —- were granted to just 35 informants and their relatives in the fiscal year after Sept. 11.
Congress created the program in 1994 for foreign nationals living here or abroad, and since has capped the number at 200 a year for criminal informants (S-5 visas) and 50 a year for terrorism informants (S-6 visas). Immigration advocates generally welcome the program as a gesture of cooperative faith in, not antagonism toward, immigrants.
Now, generally the visa stamped on one’s passport has the visa category (S-5 or S-6 in this case) printed on there. So what happens with these S visas? Can someone open up your passport and immediately realize that you ratted out a drug dealer or a terrorist? Is that even a good idea? Also, does “S” have anything to do with “snitch” or is it just a coincidence?
