WASHINGTON, Feb 2: The United States believes there are 314,000 visa violators in the country targeted for deportation who have jumped bail and are classified as fugitive aliens.

This was stated by US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) Commissioner James Ziglar in a speech on Friday when he claimed that the persons concerned had been given due process but preferred to disappear after obtaining bail.

The government was entering the names of the “absconders” into the FBI’s National Crime Information Center database, Ziglar said, adding he would like to make it clear that “this is not a ‘sweep.’ These individuals have been accorded due process. They appeared before immigration judges, went through the appeals process, and now face a final order of deportation. Instead of complying with the law, however, they have chosen to ‘jump bails’ and abscond.”

The word ‘sweep’ has often been invoked in the media and by civil rights groups in describing the crackdown on immigrants, particularly those from Arab and other Muslim states, in the wake of the Sept-11 attacks.

Ziglar said terrorism would be overcome by identifying those who intended to harm the United States, but not by deterring would-be immigrants “who want an opportunity to become contributing American citizens. We cannot judge immigrants by the actions of terrorists.”

He said the INS was working with the State Department to expand on-going data sharing to ensure that immigration inspectors had access to the consolidated consular database, which included visa information and photos of visa holders.