Tod Cyclone
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WASHINGTON - Lawmakers won't have the Immigration and Naturalization Service to kick around anymore as of March 1 when the beleaguered federal agency will cease to exist.
The move to put border security, immigration law and citizenship issues under the new Homeland Security Department marks the end of an agency officially born in 1933 and with roots that date to the late 1800s, when the federal government first began regulating the flow of immigrants into the United States.
During the past century, the Treasury Department, state and local courts, the Labor Department and the Justice Department all had a hand in keeping track of foreigners.
But the last time the INS changed places within the federal bureaucracy's organizational chart was in 1940. At the time, President Franklin Roosevelt, citing "national security" concerns before the United States entered World War II, made it part of the Justice Department.
He even temporarily moved its headquarters from Washington, D.C., to Philadelphia.
Similar national security issues prompted President Bush and Congress to shift the responsibilities of the INS from Justice to the newly created Department of Homeland Security.
"It is not surprising that the president would want to move the INS to a new Department of Homeland Security because the INS has traditionally reflected the priorities of the day," said T. Alexander Aleinikoff, a senior associate with the Migration Policy Institute, a non-partisan think tank here.
The beginning of the end for the INS began in the weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Angry lawmakers howled for changes after learning several of the 19 hijackers were in the country illegally at the time of the attacks. The outcry grew louder last March when INS officials admitted sending visa-notification letters to two of the hijackers - six months after the attacks.
Bush and a parade of lawmakers say new immigration agencies will be more effective than the INS.
"There will be a coordinated effort to . . . secure the border so that we're better able to protect our citizens and welcome our friends," Bush said in signing the bill to create the Homeland Security Department last November.
Under the reorganization plan, the INS will be part of a new department with 170,000 employees and 22 federal agencies. Homeland Security Department Secretary Tom Ridge announced Thursday that he will put the INS, the Border Patrol and two other federal agencies under the same roof with the same boss. This new bureau, the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, will deal with people before they enter the country.
He also created a second agency to track down potential violators once in the country, the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
A third division, the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, will be charged with processing millions of residency and citizenship applications.
The INS had a dismal record in enforcing the law or managing the arrival of legal immigrants.
Consider: A backlog of residency and citizenship applications had skyrocketed in recent years, frustrating millions of legal immigrants. And the number of illegal immigrants had reached 8 million to 9 million, up from 5 million in 1996.
This despite the fact that the INS budget rose from $1.2 billion in 1993 to nearly $6 billion in fiscal year 2002, which ended Sept. 30. The number of employees increased from 17,000 to 36,000.
But immigration critics and advocates alike argue that the INS never was given enough money by Congress to do either job well. And they said it's unclear whether Congress or the Bush administration is committed to boosting the budget of the new agencies, especially with the government expected to run deficits over the next several years.
Immigration critics question whether Bush or Congress will crack down on employers who hire illegal immigrants and reduce the number of legal immigrants admitted into the country.
"Now the test will be whether the politicians are prepared to back up (the Homeland Security Department) with deeds," said Dan Stein, executive director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
"That means setting rules, enforcing rules and never rewarding the people who break the rules. Without the political will to do this, the new immigration agency will be no more successful than the old one, and the American public will be no more secure than they are right now."
Jeanne Butterfield, executive director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, is among a chorus of immigration advocates troubled by putting immigration services in a department whose priority is to keep out terrorists. She fears that all immigrants will be treated as potential terrorists and that the new agencies won't work together.
"We cannot fracture the immigration agency into completely separate pieces, with enforcement swallowed up in one huge division and services in another, and expect coordination, accountability or adequate attention to the immigration agency's critical service and enforcement functions," she said.
www.freerepublic.com
The move to put border security, immigration law and citizenship issues under the new Homeland Security Department marks the end of an agency officially born in 1933 and with roots that date to the late 1800s, when the federal government first began regulating the flow of immigrants into the United States.
During the past century, the Treasury Department, state and local courts, the Labor Department and the Justice Department all had a hand in keeping track of foreigners.
But the last time the INS changed places within the federal bureaucracy's organizational chart was in 1940. At the time, President Franklin Roosevelt, citing "national security" concerns before the United States entered World War II, made it part of the Justice Department.
He even temporarily moved its headquarters from Washington, D.C., to Philadelphia.
Similar national security issues prompted President Bush and Congress to shift the responsibilities of the INS from Justice to the newly created Department of Homeland Security.
"It is not surprising that the president would want to move the INS to a new Department of Homeland Security because the INS has traditionally reflected the priorities of the day," said T. Alexander Aleinikoff, a senior associate with the Migration Policy Institute, a non-partisan think tank here.
The beginning of the end for the INS began in the weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Angry lawmakers howled for changes after learning several of the 19 hijackers were in the country illegally at the time of the attacks. The outcry grew louder last March when INS officials admitted sending visa-notification letters to two of the hijackers - six months after the attacks.
Bush and a parade of lawmakers say new immigration agencies will be more effective than the INS.
"There will be a coordinated effort to . . . secure the border so that we're better able to protect our citizens and welcome our friends," Bush said in signing the bill to create the Homeland Security Department last November.
Under the reorganization plan, the INS will be part of a new department with 170,000 employees and 22 federal agencies. Homeland Security Department Secretary Tom Ridge announced Thursday that he will put the INS, the Border Patrol and two other federal agencies under the same roof with the same boss. This new bureau, the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, will deal with people before they enter the country.
He also created a second agency to track down potential violators once in the country, the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
A third division, the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, will be charged with processing millions of residency and citizenship applications.
The INS had a dismal record in enforcing the law or managing the arrival of legal immigrants.
Consider: A backlog of residency and citizenship applications had skyrocketed in recent years, frustrating millions of legal immigrants. And the number of illegal immigrants had reached 8 million to 9 million, up from 5 million in 1996.
This despite the fact that the INS budget rose from $1.2 billion in 1993 to nearly $6 billion in fiscal year 2002, which ended Sept. 30. The number of employees increased from 17,000 to 36,000.
But immigration critics and advocates alike argue that the INS never was given enough money by Congress to do either job well. And they said it's unclear whether Congress or the Bush administration is committed to boosting the budget of the new agencies, especially with the government expected to run deficits over the next several years.
Immigration critics question whether Bush or Congress will crack down on employers who hire illegal immigrants and reduce the number of legal immigrants admitted into the country.
"Now the test will be whether the politicians are prepared to back up (the Homeland Security Department) with deeds," said Dan Stein, executive director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
"That means setting rules, enforcing rules and never rewarding the people who break the rules. Without the political will to do this, the new immigration agency will be no more successful than the old one, and the American public will be no more secure than they are right now."
Jeanne Butterfield, executive director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, is among a chorus of immigration advocates troubled by putting immigration services in a department whose priority is to keep out terrorists. She fears that all immigrants will be treated as potential terrorists and that the new agencies won't work together.
"We cannot fracture the immigration agency into completely separate pieces, with enforcement swallowed up in one huge division and services in another, and expect coordination, accountability or adequate attention to the immigration agency's critical service and enforcement functions," she said.
www.freerepublic.com