Congress came back for a lame duck session after the elections earlier this month, and immediately went to work on passing a Homeland Security bill.  The House of Representatives passed the bill by a 299 to 121 vote this week, and the Senate is expected to act on the legislation as early as next week. 

The bill contains significant immigration provisions, including the abolishment of the INS.  Also, the new Department of Homeland Security would have exclusive authority to both issue regulations and provide enforcement on the issuance of visas and parole into the US.  Agents from the Homeland Security Department would be stationed at US consulates, but consulates would still be managed by the State Department.

Information about applicants who are denied a visa would be placed in a database, and future applications would not be approved unless the prior denial is examined and taken into account.

The INS would be transformed into two agencies, a Bureau of Border Security, which would encompass the Border Patrol, investigations, inspections and intelligence, and a Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, which would perform services currently done by the INS.  A new Office of Citizenship would be created to promote acquisition of US citizenship.  Numerous provisions to improve processing are found in the bill, including the creation of an ombudsman, programs to eliminate backlogs, and regular reporting requirements.  The two new agencies would be linked by an Office of Shared Services, which would be responsible for coordinating resources and information. 

The Senate is likely to pass the measure with few changes.  The text of the bill as passed by the House is available online at http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=107_cong_bills&docid=f:h5710eh.txt.pdf.