Bush era South Carolina passed a law, and thus created a related form, that required terrorists to register themselves as such at the DMV.
I used to have it on file somewhere, now it's buried in an old hard drive. Would love to have one again. Would love even more to do a FOIA request to see if they ever actually got any filled out.
It reminds me of the paper forms I'd have to fill out when entering the US on a UK passport. The forms would ask questions like whether or not I was a nazi that participated in the holocaust.
They still ask that. They will ask those questions whenever you need a visa issued or renewed.
I wondered if anyone has ever said yes to the genocide questions.
Their purpose isn't to get accurate information, they're there to give immigration authorities an easy legal way to kick someone out for something that would otherwise require a higher standard of evidence. I.e. anyone answering yes to that question is obviously a red flag but a former SS officer who writes in no can be kicked out by proving he knowingly lied on the forms due to his past as an SS agent without proving he was involved in or knew about the atrocities, which could be a lot harder.
Same thing for a lot of the security clearance forms. "Check here if you have ever tried to overthrow the US government", etc.
Mostly an IQ/reading comprehension thing -- like, an actual spy who isn't a moron is going to leave it blank -- but I've heard a defense of it that's something to the effect of "well, you never asked, so I never disclosed [X]."
