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CNN Live Today

House to Approve Split of INS

Aired April 25, 2002 - 13:15   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: The House is expected to approve a plan this afternoon that would split up the INS, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, into two separate agencies. Kate Snow is on the Hill live with us with more on this. Kate, good afternoon.

KATE SNOW, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi. Good afternoon, Bill. And the big deal here today is that the White House is now backing this, which is a bit of a reversal for the White House. You know, early on, over the last few months in light of some of the problems at the INS, they've been saying, look, let us fix it. We are going to do it internally. We're going to make administrative changes at the INS. Everything is going to be just fine. That's what they had been saying.

Now, the attorney general singing a completely different tune and saying we are going to back this legislation because we see the need for change too. You're looking at pictures from Huffman Aviation. Remember last month when two forms showed up, approval notices, for two visas, student visas, for two of the hijackers that had hijacked planes on 9/11. Those visas showed up six months late. It created a sense of outrage here on Capitol Hill and it really drove what had already been some outrage over the INS to become just to a boiling point where they really want to pass this legislation. We do expect it to pass overwhelmingly.

Add to that all of the long lines at the INS that we always hear about, people who are trying to get new green cards or trying to change their status have to wait in huge, long lines. One member told me today he used to have a person that would deal with IRS, Internal Revenue Service complaints from his constituents. Now he has have a person on staff just to deal with the INS complaints because there are so many people in his district that have so many troubles with the agency.

They have a 5 million case backlog at the INS right now. Five million people were still waiting for their paperwork. So the problem agreed by Congress and the administration is really that the INS is trying to do too much, trying to be too many things to too many people. So what this bill would do is abolish the INS as it exists right now, create two new agencies instead, one to deal with immigration services, things like -- I mentioned application for green cards or citizenship. And then, the second to deal with what they call enforcement. That's finding illegal immigrants, finding potential terrorists out there, people who have overstayed their visas, that sort of thing. Attorney General Ashcroft saying that it won't change everything overnight to make that change, but it's a good first step.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN ASHCROFT, ATTORNEY GENERAL: We think to pass this measure today will provide a pathway for getting that done. This is not the end of the journey. This is an important set of first steps essential to the journey's end, but not sufficient to get us there.

REP. CHRIS CANNON (R), UTAH: I don't think anybody moving a box here or there is going to change those fundamental problems. What would change those problems is bringing new technology -- that's not new, that is technology that we've done many times in many business contexts and in many governmental contexts, and giving the authority to the head of the agency to implement those technology changes and to remove people, to fire people who won't get with the program.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SNOW: I asked the sponsor of the bill, Mr. Sensenbrenner, who is the judiciary chairman, why he thinks this is going to work, to split the agency in two pieces. And he said two things. One is the chain of command. Right now, you have got people who are doing enforcement, for example, and their boss is an expert on paperwork and not on the enforcement side. So everybody would be on one team. And then, secondly, he says, you split it in two, you create two budgets, Bill, so that they submit separate budgets to Congress and they're not finding over money all the time the way they are right now. Bill, back to you.

HEMMER: Got it. Kate, thanks. Kate Snow on Capitol Hill. Thank you very much.

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