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from Immigration News Briefs (INB)
On Dec. 7, the US House of Representatives voted 336-75 to
approve the 2004 Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention
Act; on Dec. 8 the Senate approved it 89-2. The bill came in
response to the 9/11 Commission’s recommendations for correcting
security problems relating to the terror attacks of Sept. 11,
2001. The bill is expected to be signed soon by President George
W. Bush. [Washington Post 12/8/04; Washington Times 12/8/04;
Govexec.com Daily Briefing 12/9/04; National Immigration Forum
Update 12/8/04; Houston Chronicle 12/9/04]
In addition to measures concerning intelligence information-
sharing and reorganization, the 245-page bill includes provisions
for increasing the number of full-time border patrol agents by
10,000 over five years and the number of full-time Immigration
and Customs Enforcement (ICE) investigators by 4,000 over five
years. It also orders an increase in the number of beds available
for immigration detainees by 40,000 in the same time period, and
establishes minimum federal standards for birth certificates and
driver licenses. [Govexec.com Daily Briefing 12/9/04]
Other measures in the bill will loosen standards for Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI) surveillance warrants, allow the
Justice Department to more easily detain suspects without bail
and expand the criteria that constitute “material support” to
terrorist groups. The bill does include one measure sought by
civil liberties advocates: a Privacy and Civil Liberties Board,
designed to safeguard individuals’ rights. [WP 12/8/04, 12/10/04;
NIF Update 12/8/04]
After prior versions of the bill were passed by the Senate on
Oct. 6 and the House on Oct. 8 [see INB 10/16/04], a conference
committee spent two months fighting mostly over anti-immigrant
provisions included in the House version. Most of the
representatives who opposed the final bill did so because they
objected to the removal of the anti-immigrant provisions; they
were outvoted after President George W. Bush promised, in a Dec.
7 letter, that he would consider border security provisions in
2005. “I look forward to working with the Congress early in the
next session to address these issues, including improving our
asylum laws and standards for issuing driver’s licenses,” Bush
wrote. In a closed Republican meeting on Dec. 7, House Speaker J.
Dennis Hastert (R-IL) apparently also promised to include the
immigration provisions in a “must-pass” legislative package early
next year–most likely attached to a bill seeking $70 billion for
military and “reconstruction” spending in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), who led the fight to keep the
anti-immigrant measures in the bill, has vowed to introduce a new
bill on Jan. 4–the first day of the new Congress–which will
include a national ban on issuing state driver licenses to
undocumented immigrants, a higher standard of proof for asylum-
seekers and closure of a three-mile gap in a fence along the
California-Mexico border. Sensenbrenner said his proposal will
not include a Bush-supported “guest worker” plan for immigrants.
[HC 12/9/04; NIF Update 12/8/04; WT 12/8/04; WP 12/8/04]