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[Unclassified]

MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD

Event: Telephonic Interview with Louis Nardi

Type of event: Telephone Interview
Date: April 1, 2004
Special Access Issues: N/A
Prepared by: Walter T. Hempel
Team Number: 5 J$£, \
Location: Telephone
Participants - Louis Nardi, Former Deputy Director of the INS National Security Unit » \0 4-\\s - Commissio

Background
Lou Nardi was Deputy Director of the INS National Security Unit (NSU) from to .
During that time the Alien Absconder Initiative (AAI) Phase 1 was initiated. The AAI was run •
out of the NSU in HQ and they had the responsibility to report the results, through channels, to
DOJ.

Nardi did not know how the initial 6,000 non-citizens were extracted from the pool of 314,000
that INS Commissioner Ziglar had announced as absconders. Nardi believed that the 314,000
were a computer search of the Deportable Alien Control System (DACS) which maintains
information on aliens that are in the deportation process, in INS custody, or who have been
deported from the United States. The DACS system, like all INS information systems, was well
known to have unreliable data. With at least eight "stovepipe" computer data bases, DACS
frequently would reflect that the alien was deportable when in fact there was a benefit
application under consideration. Also some deportable aliens in DACS had been granted
permanent residence or had been naturalized. INS often created multiple "A" files that were not
consolidated. This was because of poor recordkeeping, the use of names instead of biometrics to
open new files and the incompatibility of the various recordkeeping systems. 53
CO

The AAI project was considered a critical task at NSU. This was at a time when over 50% of the
2,000 INS Special Agents in the field had been assigned to the FBI for post 9-11 investigations. ~r> • •:~-
The NSU did not have the personnel to handle the initial 6,000 target files. It was necessary to <^> cd
33 Kj
bring in intelligence officers from the Office of Intelligence and assign them to reviewing the
files. This was at a time when there was an increased demand for products from the Office of §
Intelligence. Many Special Agents from the field were detailed for extended periods of time to
work on the mechanics of the AAI project. The Law Enforcement Support Center (LESC) was
tasked with entering the AAI cases into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC). I
Q
J After 9-11, the number of daily record check queries increased greatly as
the nation's law enforcement agencies tried to prevent another terrorist attack.

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9/11 Law Enforcement Sensitive
 9/11 Law E n f o r c e m e n t Sensitive

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The initial 6,000 non-citizens were selectedbased on three criteria:

The list of non-citizens was run through the Foreign terrorist Tracking Task Force (FTTTF).
There numerous databases were checked for information. The FTTF also diverted some cases
out of the AAI project and provided them directly to the FBI. This process and other data
searches conducted by the NSU and the LESC resulted in a final target population of
approximately 5,000 to 5,200 non-citizens.
,
The NSU took these files and determined the last address of redprd. A work file was then sent to K\0 kt
the INS Investigations Office having jurisdiction over the last known address. Each District % A)JV
office had a Supervisory Special Agent as a POC. The file was then checked again against oVi P,
national and local databases. (Note: Many local databases such as public utility records, parking \vA. v "
violations, welfare records, etc. could not be searched from HQ). This-.required considerable »
effort at the local office when the services of every INS office were severely taxed. The work
file was then usually assigned to a Special Agent (some were handled by SA's assigned to the
Joint Terrorist Task Forces, JTTF). There was a thirty (30) day call up on all assigned cases.
Thirty day extensions were only given when there were other open leads that had been developed
locally or there was a probability that the case could be closed by an arrest within the next thirty
days. All extensions had to be approved by NSU. The targeted population was hot distributed
evenly throughout the United States. Some cities like Detroit and New York had a, large number
of assigned AAI cases and did not have enough Special Agents to work them. In many cases, the
location of the deportable alien was determined to be in another city. The work file would have
to be completed, returned to NSU and reassigned to another office.

Copies of significant documents in the "A" file were made and sent to the LESC. The LESC
would review the data and enter accepted cases into the NCIC wanted person file. |

Nardi stated that most of the selected cases were not criminal aliens. Some of the cases were
quite old and had few local leads. He did not remember any that had terrorist identifiers and to
the best of his knowledge, none of these cases resulted in terrorist prosecutions.

Lessons Learned

The AAI project was a costly, time consuming and labor intensive project. INS was not prepared
to undertake a nationwide investigation of this size.

Intelligence officers, who were critically needed to evaluate information in the Office of
Intelligence, were instead detailed to NSU to do clerk level data checks.

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