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CNN Live Event/Special

Ashcroft Details Administration's Plans to Break Up INS

Aired April 25, 2002 - 10:08   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to go to Washington right now. Attorney General John Ashcroft now is making an announcement we have heard before. We are going to get some more details, we hope, this morning about breaking up the INS into two different units.

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JOHN ASHCROFT, ATTORENY GENERAL: ... and to change the way America dealt with securing its borders and welcoming immigrants to America and this campaign.

We believe that the measure that the House, I believe, should and will pass today. It contains giant steps toward getting that done and puts us on the road to real achievement. And we believe that working together, all the members of the team who will be assembled to ultimately restructure and change INS from what we have to a new service level for America, will shape this process. And we think that working together, we will reach an accommodation that will be successful in serving America.

HARRIS: And what we have been listening to is Attorney General John Ashcroft. He is on Capitol Hill this morning. He has been answering some questions and giving some more details about the administration's plans to break up the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the INS, into two different units, one that would handle immigration matters for people who are coming into this country, and also a different agency or a different unit that would actually control what's happening at the nation's borders.

We will keep our eye on that story as it develops.

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