House Votes To Abolish INS
The House has overwhelmingly passed a bill to split the Immigration and Naturalization Service in two, reports CBS News Correspondent Bob Fuss.
The legislation, approved by a vote of 405-9 Thursday afternoon, would create two new agencies to handle enforcement and immigration services.
House Republicans and Democrats both got behind the bill. "I am convinced it is time for reform," said House Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo. "We will have taken a big step in helping the federal government manage immigration," said Rep. John Linder, R-Ga.
Lawmakers didn't mince words in voicing their disdain for the embattled agency.
"It is beyond time to restructure one of the worst-run agencies in the U.S. government," said House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis.
The overhaul would scrap the INS and create one agency to enforce laws and keep out unqualified people and another to smooth the way to possible citizenship for legal immigrants. The new agencies would stay under Attorney General John Ashcroft's control at the Justice Department.
Ashcroft called the bill a good first step. But he said he's looking to his former colleagues in the Senate to write a bill more to his liking.
"We are committed to ending the INS as we know it," Ashcroft said.
The breakup of the INS is seen as vital by many in Congress because of a series of foul-ups. Notice of previously approved visa extensions for two of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers was mailed months after the attacks; a government aviation newsletter was still being mailed to another hijacker long after his death. Although all 19 came on valid visas, several were illegally in the country at the time of the attacks.
The Bush administration originally wanted to divide the INS functions administratively while keeping the agency intact. That plan has not been warmly received in Congress, and Sensenbrenner's committee approved the breakup plan two weeks ago on a 32-2 vote.
One of those "no" votes spoke out again against the bill Thursday, with Rep. Melvin Watt, D-N.C., calling the proposed two new agencies a "two-headed monster."
"You've got one inefficient unproductive INS now. It seems to me what you're going to end up with is two inefficient agencies," said Watt, who acknowledged he did not have enough votes to stop the bill.
The White House now supports Sensenbrenner's bill but says it needs some work. A Senate bill already is in the works and administration officials will likely talk to senators to get changes they want, Ashcroft said.
"I think all the parties here understand that the way you get laws done in the United States is that we all work together," Ashcroft said.
The administration wants the new immigration agencies' boss, who would be an associate attorney general, to have as much power as the current INS commissioner. The White House also wants Congress not to limit whom the president can appoint to run the agencies.
The House bill would require the new associate attorney general to have a minimum five years' experience running "a large and complex organization."
"There are several improvements we would like to see in the legislation, but we share a common goal and believe that Congress needs to get this done," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.
The immigration service has been criticized for years because of huge backlogs of applications for benefits such as naturalization or permanent residence. In addition, critics say the service's dual missions conflict: to help immigrants enter and stay in the country and to identify and keep out those who try to enter illegally or may pose a danger.
Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., also is working on an INS breakup bill. His legislation also would split the service in two but would have an independent administrator, appointed by the president, overseeing the immigration bureaus rather than an associate attorney general.