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1 [1] (May 19, 2025)

handle is hein.crs/alinrstnrq0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional Research Service Inforrning the legislative debate since 1914 May 19, 2025 Alien Registration Requirements Section 262 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) requires most aliens (i.e., non-U.S. citizens or nationals) who are age 14 and older and present in the United States for 30 days or more to apply for registration and fingerprinting with immigration authorities. Parents or legal guardians of children under age 14 must ensure they are registered. Section 264 of the INA requires aliens over age 18 to carry issued proof of registration. Failure to comply with these and other registration requirements, codified at 8 U.S.C. §§1301-1306, may subject aliens to misdemeanor penalties and serve as grounds for removal from the United States. By regulation and statute, some categories of aliens are exempted from registration requirements. Long-standing regulations implementing these requirements did not provide specific registration forms for every category of nonexempted aliens, including those who entered the United States without inspection and were unlawfully present. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's (DHS's) U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently stated that under these regulations, a significant number of aliens present in the United States have had no direct way to register and meet their obligation under INA 262. On March 12, 2025, DHS published an interim final rule (IFR), Alien Registration Form and Evidence of Registration, effective April 11, 2025. The IFR creates a new, general registration form for certain unregistered aliens to comply with registration and fingerprinting requirements under Section 262. The IFR follows a January 20, 2025, executive order that contains a provision for the Identification of Unregistered Illegal Aliens. The provision directs DHS to ensure that unregistered aliens comply with Section 262. It also directs agencies to treat alien registration requirements as a civil and criminal enforcement priority. Despite the seemingly broad reach of Sections 262 and 264, U.S. Department of Justice data show that prosecutions under them have been rare. Historical Background The federal government has imposed alien registration requirements of varying scope since the Naturalization Act of 1798. Some requirements have targeted specific groups, such as Chinese nationals in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and enemy aliens during World War I. Current registration requirements have their roots in the Alien Registration Act of 1940. The 1940 act required aliens to be registered and fingerprinted before being issued a visa. Aliens age 14 and older who had remained in the United States for 30 days or longer and had not already been registered were required to apply for registration and be fingerprinted at a U.S. post office or other places designated by the Commissioner of the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). Parents and guardians had to ensure alien children under 14 were registered. Aliens subject to registration requirements were also required to report address changes to the INS. Failure to comply was punishable by fines and/or imprisonment. From August 1940 through March 31, 1944, alien registration was recorded on Alien Registration Forms (AR- 2s). Since April 1, 1944, Alien Registration Numbers (A- Numbers) have been recorded in Alien Files (A-Files), which are the official files for all immigration and naturalization records. Following World War II, federal regulations transferred registration functions from post offices to INS and designated them to be completed at U.S. ports of entry through documentation of individuals' immigration statuses. Some aliens, including Canadian visitors, were exempt. In 1952, Congress enacted the INA, which contained registration and fingerprinting provisions that closely resembled the 1940 act. Legislation and regulatory changes following the INA's enactment narrowed the scope and application of these requirements. After the INA's enactment, federal regulations exempted from registration requirements Canadian citizens and British subject visitors and nonimmigrant agricultural workers. A 1957 amendment to the INA authorized the U.S. Departments of State and Justice to waive fingerprinting for any nonimmigrants (i.e., aliens admitted on a temporary basis). Subsequent changes directly or indirectly affected the registration requirements' application to other groups (including those described in the Exempted and Impacted Populations section below). According to one scholarly analysis, these and other developments resulted in alien registration requirements rarely being enforced, as there was no regulatory apparatus in place to register anyone outside of the ordinary process of applying for selected forms of immigration status. Statutory Authorities and Penalties The primary statutory authorities for alien registration are found in Sections 261-266 of the INA (8 U.S.C. §§1301- 06). Apart from Section 262's registration requirements, Section 264 (8 U.S.C. §1304) requires aliens 18 years and older to carry any certificate of alien registration or alien registration receipt card issued to him; failure to do so may result in a fine and/or imprisonment for up to 30 days. Section 265 (8 U.S.C. §1305) requires aliens to notify the federal government within 10 days of any address change. Section 266 (8 U.S.C. §1306) details other penalties related to alien registration. Aliens who willfully fail or refuse to https://crsreport