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U.S. House Votes To Break Up INS For Failing To “Keep Terrorists Out”
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| US Congressman:
“Nothing can pull the INS out
of this morass in which it finds itself”
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WASHINGTON,
April 27 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Angry with the U.S.
immigration service's inability to ferret out suspected terrorists
ahead of September 11, the U.S. House of Representatives has declared
it beyond repair and voted to break it up.
The
bill, approved by the House 405-9 on Thursday, would dismantle the
Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and create two separate
entities: one responsible for visa processing and citizenship
applications, the other in charge of law enforcement.
Sensing
that a legislative solution to the INS’s problems had overtaken the
agency's own reform effort, U.S. President George W. Bush’s
administration unexpectedly abandoned its official neutrality -and
private opposition - to the House bill late Wednesday, and endorsed
it, as U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft went to Capitol Hill to
announce support for the bill, reports the New York Times.
"This
bill will provide a solid framework for our new immigration system to
keep terrorists out while providing a fair and efficient process for
those adhering to our immigration laws," said Republican
Congressman James Sensenbrenner, the chief sponsor of the measure.
"We
are committed to ending the INS as we know it," Ashcroft told
reporters. "Our nation's security depends on protecting our
lengthy borders. Our nation's prosperity depends on welcoming needed
workers. It is time to separate fully our service to legal immigrants
who help build America ... from our enforcement against illegal aliens
who violate the laws of America."
Ashcroft
said the administration still had some problems with the bill, but
hopes to include those reservations in the Senate version.
Another
bill supporter, Florida Republican Rep. Mark Foley, was more direct:
"The common goal of ridding our system of an incompetent agency
that costs people their lives is a worthy one," CNN reported.
Both
agencies will still operate as part of the Department of Justice but
will be supervised by an associate attorney general for immigration
affairs, a new rung in the Washington bureaucracy the bill creates.
The
measure was born out frustration with the plodding agency with a
backlog of 4.9 million cases that many now accuse of failing to stop
terrorists responsible for the September 11 attacks at U.S. border
checkpoints. The agency, reports the Times, has a host of
responsibilities, including policing thousands of miles of border with
Canada and Mexico, immigration enforcement within the country, and
providing benefits to millions of the nation's newest residents.
Immigration
officials believe that all 19 hijackers who rammed passengers planes
into the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon outside
Washington, and crashed a fourth plane in Pennsylvania had entered the
United States on valid visas.
Critics
said this mere fact pointed to serious deficiencies in the immigration
service's applicant screening process. Moreover, the agency has been
accused of being aware of this problem for years and failing to fix
it.
As
many as 41 of the 47 foreign-born individuals who were charged,
pleaded guilty or were convicted of involvement in terrorism on U.S.
soil in the last 10 years had been approved for a visa by an U.S.
consulate overseas at some point, argued congressional officials.
But
the simmering frustration with the INS came to a boil last month, when
the service sent to two of the dead hijackers - Mohammed Atta and
Marwan al-Shehhi - official notification that their visas had been
upgraded.
Sensing
an ax over its head, the immigration service put forward its own
reform plan that would have kept it whole. But the House would have
none of it.
"I
don’t think any additional attempt at internal reorganizing can pull
the INS out of this morass in which it finds itself," thundered
Sensenbrenner.
The
bill sets stringent case processing requirements and, for the first
time, allows an applicant to monitor the progress of his or her case
online.
Attorney
General John Ashcroft welcomed the House measure, saying it "puts
us on the road to real achievement."
The
Times reported that a parallel Senate bill, sponsored by Senators
Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA), and Sam Brownback (R-KS), is expected to be
introduced next week.
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