LEGISLATIVE UPDATE

This week the House and Senate agreed to a final bill on funding the Commerce, Justice and State Departments for fiscal year 2002.  The bill provides more than $2.7 billion in funding for INS border and enforcement activities, and $631 million for provision of services and benefits.  This funding level assumes that the INS will collect about $2.1 billion in fees for services.  About 57 percent of the money spent by the INS comes from fees, but only about 23 percent is dedicated to providing services.

Other immigration related aspects of the funding bill include a 18-month extension of the Hmong Veterans Naturalization Act, while allows members of the Hmong ethnic group who fought on behalf of the US during the Vietnam War to take an oral rather than written citizenship exam.  The INS is also authorized to grant posthumous naturalization to victims of the September 11^th tragedy who had pending naturalization applications.

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As part of his campaign in support of H.R. 3231, the Immigration Reform and Accountability Act of 2001, Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) recently toured the San Ysidro port of entry in California, the busiest in the nation.  The bill would split the INS into two separate agencies, one for services and one for enforcement.  The idea of splitting the agency has been growing in popularity for the past few years.  INS officials say such a drastic measure is not needed, and that any necessary reforms can be accomplished within the existing agency.  For example, INS Commissioner James Ziglar recently proposed creating assigning two directors to each INS district office, one to focus on service and the other on enforcement.  A detailed summary of the INS’ own plans for reorganization is included later in this newsletter.

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H.R. 3286, the Securing America from Terrorist Entries Act, introduced by Rep. Dave Weldon (R-FL), would create a moratorium on issuing visas to nationals of Afghanistan, Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.  The moratorium would end only after the Attorney General certifies that the country has machine readable passports.  

To view the full legislative chart, please visit http://www.visalaw.com/advocacy.html.

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