CARRP covertly denied immigration benefits to over 41,000 people without explanation

Evidence

In 2008, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) implemented a covert plan called the Controlled Application Review and Resolution Program, or CARRP for short. The program required immigration services field officers to deny or delay, often indefinitely, any application with a potential “national security concern,” which was defined incredibly broadly by USCIS. For some applicants, a process that normally took about six months was stretched out for years. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed a lawsuit in 2014 against the government over this scheme, more than 41,000 people from Muslim-majority countries or regions have been subject to the program since it began in 2008, and those who had their applications denied had no means of discovering why nor any meaningful opportunity to respond. In other words, the War on Terror was not winding down under Obama. It was growing roots. — Moustafa Bayoumi, How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being…, 1003

Categorization

• DEFINE: Solid, concretely explained definition of CARRP and its operational mechanism.
• SEED: Angle: ‘national security concern’ as an invisible, unreviewable visa denial category — a dark bureaucratic black box worth a longer essay.
• ADDENDUM: Supports the general argument about state surveillance of Muslims in this book; relates to the tension between law and rights running through earlier chapters.