Phone Conversation with Dan Brown on NSEERS - 5/11/04

By: Tom Eldridge, 9/11 Commission Staff member

Dan Brown was the INS attorney involved in the initial drafting of the NSEERS
regulation in September 2002. Brown said the people with most knowledge about these
programs are: Stuart Levy from DOJ, and Bob Schoch in ICE Compliance Enforcement
Unit. Brown said that NSEERS still exists, but was modified by a December 2003 DHS
regulation.

Brown said the initial regulation covered the registration of NIV holders:

1. From a short list of countries, mostly state sponsors of terror.

2. Who a State consular officer (indicated through IBIS) or INS inspector believed is
a national of a state sponsor, or
3. Who met preexisting criteria or who a consular officer or inspector thinks needs
to be monitored. These criteria were similar to, if not identical with Condor
criteria, Brown thought.

NSEERS registrants were required to reregister within thirty days of their arrival and
registration at the POE, were required to reregister annually, and were required to notify
the government of any change of their address in the United States.

Thereafter, there were a series of call-ins done on a rolling basis for citizens of countries
believed to have an al Qaeda presence. These call-ins covered male NIV holders from
the countries, and were each noticed in the federal register.

The changes in December 2003 (1) abolished the requirement that an NSEERS registrant
at a POE had to reregister within 30 days after their presentation at the POE, and (2)
abolished the requirement that an NSEERS registrant annually register after their intitial
registration. However, authorities still have the ability to call someone in if they believe
they need to do that for registration. Also, the NSEERS registrant is still obligated to
notifylhTgovernment if they change their address in the U.S.
vcP-0 ,
NSEERS registration occurs at in SECONDARY at POEs still. This is different from
US-VISIT that occurs in PRIMARY. Brown said that US-VISIT plans to fold NSEERS *°\3S#
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into its system eventually and that this is stated on their website.

NSEERS registration also involved many more questions than does a typical encounter,
according to Brown. He said there is a set list of questions -perhaps like the interview
project? Or Absconders?—that each registrant is asked. OWL

Brown said the NSEERS database is maintained by some DHS entity, he thought ICE or
CPB, but was not sure. Brown also was not sure whether NSEERS violators were in
CLASS or IBIS. 11