Dear Readers:

Why do major immigration events tend to happen on Fridays when I'm trying to wrap things up for the weekend? The Senate just passed a cloture motion by a vote of 65 to 29 that virtually assures the Homeland Security bill will become law in a few days. The Homeland Security legislation will dramatically alter many aspects of the immigration system. We intend to provide more and more information on the legislation in the weeks and months to come in addition to the brief summary we provide this week. The bill itself is more than 400 pages long and it will take some time to digest all of the changes.

Most significantly, the INS will be no more. Instead, two new agencies - one an enforcement agency and one a benefits agency - will now be in two different sections of the new Homeland Security Department. The question of how the INS should be structured has been debated for years. While pro-immigration organizations have generally argued against splitting the agency up, this has not been a uniform position. I, for example, have suggested in this column in the past that formally splitting the agency could improve the culture at the agency that administers immigration and citizenship benefits. Furthermore, agency funding has been steadily diverted from benefits to enforcement over the year and a services-only agency may be able to get adequate funding more easily particularly if it can find enough money through the fees it charges.

New agencies with the names Bureau of Border Security and the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration will take over the INS' previous functions. One small victory for immigration advocates was getting the services-oriented BCI moved to a so-called "fifth box" on the organizational chart and the new agency will report directly to the Deputy Secretary for Homeland Security. Previous versions of the bill had the director of this bureau reporting to the Border and Transportation Security chief. This move is said to give the services agency more prestige and access in the department infrastructure.

The Department of State is taking a major hit to its prestige with the new bill. The State Department will still issue visas at US consulates. But Homeland Security officers will now have the power to veto a consular officer's approval of a visa and the new department will set overall visa issuing policy.

Last week I talked about the effect of the elections on the immigration committees in the House and Senate. With this new bill, there will no longer be these committees since they are part of the committee that oversees the US Department of Justice. How Congress will reorganize itself to oversee the new HS Department and its 22 subsidiary agencies remains to be seen.

Finally, as always, we remind readers that we're lawyers who make our living representing immigration clients. We would love to discuss becoming your law firm. Just go to http://www.visalaw.com/intake.html to request an appointment or call us at 800-748-3819 or 901-682-6455.

Regards,

Greg Siskind