Genocide Used as Basis to Deny Entry
Posted Sep 06, 2002

For the first time ever, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) denied admission to a foreign national based on allegations that the individual engaged in the commission of genocide. A Rwandan national, he was charged under this ground of inadmissibility at the Immigration Court in Bloomington, Minnesota on August 15, 2002.

In addition to the genocide charge, this individual was also charged with fraud and entering the U.S. without a valid entry document. These charges were brought in the context of removal proceedings. He attempted to enter the U.S. in December 2001, and has been in INS custody since his arrest. Shortly thereafter, the INS initiated an investigation into whether he had engaged in genocide in his native country of Rwanda.

Commission of genocide is a legal ground for denying entry to the U.S.; however, it had not been utilized before this time. Genocide is defined consistent with the International Convention on The Prevention and Punishment of Genocide. This definition includes specified acts, if they are done with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. The specified acts are killing, causing serious bodily harm or mental harm, inflicting conditions designed to bring about physical destruction, imposing measures to prevent births within the persecuted group and forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

After the tragic events of September 11, 2001, the U.S. has been criticized for its insensitivity to constitutional protections and fundamental freedoms and liberties for people both in the U.S. and in other parts of the world. This case seems to attest to our being a nation that cares about fundamental human rights and freedoms for peoples throughout the world. This case may also set a precedent for the INS and other governmental agencies to enforce beneficial laws that are on the books but, heretofore, have not been utilized.