Looks as if Bush is supporting a bill in Congress that is actually anti-illegal immigration. Hard to believe since this is one issue where Bush and I disagree wholeheartedly most of the time. (hat tip The Tar Pit)
The Bush administration Wednesday gave a boost to a republican backed bill on the House floor this week that includes barring illegal immigrants from using driver’s licenses to board airplanes or enter federal facilities.
“The administration strongly supports House passage of HR 418 to strengthen the ability of the United States to protect against terrorist entry into and activities within the United States,” the White House statement said.
This is the first clear support of the bill, called the Read ID Act, from President George W. Bush. How members vote Thursday could be a bellwether for future votes on the broader, more charged issue of immigration reform.
Wednesday’s House debate broke down along party lines. Democrats, while opposing the driver’s license portion of the bill, concentrated mainly on an asylum provision that Republicans say would tighten a system they say makes it easy for terrorists to find safe haven in the United States. But Democrats say such a provision will make it more difficult for victims of persecution to seek refuge here.
“If the Real ID Act is passed,” said Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Lakewood, it would “slam the door on refugees seeking asylum from blood-thirsty regimes. It’s a sad day when Republicans use the pretext of national security to attack immigrants who pose no real threat to the national security.”
The asylum provision would give immigration judges greater sway over whether to grant someone asylum and would bar asylum-seekers from appealing to federal courts if the judge’s decision goes against them.
“It is a fact that terrorists have and continue to abuse our asylum laws to stay in this country,” Rep. Ed Royce, R-Fullerton, said in a floor statement. Royce pointed to the so-called “Blind Sheik,” Omar Abdel Rahman, who led a plot to bomb New York City landmarks in the 1990s. Royce said he used an asylum application to avoid deportation.
The bill would also order completion of a three and a half-mile gap in the fence between the United States and Mexico at Otay Mesa. And it would make it easier to deport individuals who would have been barred from the country under the new terrorism grounds implemented after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
You go Ed Royce, my main man from my home town. His office actually gave us a tour of Congress last August when we we’re visiting Washington.
Here is Sensenbrenner comments on the floor today that describes what this bill will do:
“The goal of the REAL ID Act is straightforward. It seeks to prevent another 9/11-type terrorist attack by disrupting terrorist travel. The 9/11 Commission’s terrorist travel report stated that ‘abuse of the immigration system and a lack of interior enforcement were unwittingly working together to support terrorist activities.’ The report further states that, ‘members of Al Qaida clearly valued freedom of movement as critical to their ability to plan and carry out the attacks prior to September 11th.’ Finally, the report observes, ‘if terrorist travel options are reduced, they may be forced to rely on means of interaction which can be more easily monitored and to resort to travel documents that are more easily detectable.’
“The REAL ID Act contains four provisions aimed at disrupting terrorist travel. First, the legislation does not try to set states’ policy for those who may or may not drive a car, but it does address the use of a driver’s license as a form of identification to a federal official. American citizens have the right to know who is in their country, that people are who they say they are, and that the name on the driver’s license is the real holder’s name, not some alias.
“Second, this legislation will tighten our asylum system, which has been abused by terrorists. The 9/11 Commission staff report on terrorist travel states that ‘once the terrorists had entered the United States, their next challenge was to find a way to remain here. Their primary method was immigration fraud.’ Irresponsible judges have made the asylum laws vulnerable to fraud and abuse. We will end judge-imposed presumptions that benefit suspected terrorists in order to stop providing a safe haven to some of the worst people on Earth. The REAL ID Act will reduce the opportunity for immigration fraud so that we can protect honest asylum seekers and stop rewarding the terrorists and criminals who falsely claim persecution.
“Liberal activist judges in the 9th Circuit have been overturning clearly established precedent and are preventing immigration judges from denying bogus asylum applications by aliens who are clearly lying. If criminal juries can sentence a defendant to life imprisonment or execution based on adverse credibility determinations, certainly an immigration judge can deny an alien asylum on this basis. It is one of the foundations of our system of jurisprudence that juries and trial judges should be able to decide cases on the basis of the credibility or lack of credibility of witnesses. The bill will again allow immigration judges to deny asylum claims on the basis of credibility.
“The bill overturns an even more disturbing 9th Circuit precedent that has made it easier for terrorists to receive asylum. The Circuit has actually held that an alien can receive asylum on the basis that his or her government believes the alien is a terrorist.
“Third, the REAL ID Act will waive federal laws to the extent necessary to complete gaps in the San Diego border security fence, which is still stymied eight years after congressional authorization. Neither the public safety nor the environment are benefiting from the current stalemate.
“Finally, the REAL ID Act contains a common-sense provision that helps protect Americans from terrorists who have infiltrated the United States. Currently, certain terrorism-related grounds of inadmissibility to our country are not also grounds for deportation of aliens already here. The REAL ID Act makes aliens deportable from the U.S. for terrorism-related offenses to the same extent that they would be inadmissible to the United States to begin with. And the Act provides that any alien who knowingly provides funds or other material support to a terrorist organization will be subject to immigration consequences.
“The REAL ID Act will make America a safer place. It is endorsed by the 9-11 Families for a Secure America, an association of family members of 9-11 victims. I urge my colleagues to support this bill.”
This is loooooong over due quite frankly.
What makes this bill even better is this:
A ragged fence and a canyon called Smugglers Gulch mark the westernmost stretch of the California-Mexico border, a favorite crossing point for illegal immigrants and drug runners.
The federal government and a powerful local Republican congressman have been pushing for years to fortify the 3 1/2-mile stretch of border just north of Tijuana, Mexico. Their plan is opposed by California coastal regulators and environmentalists who say it could harm a fragile Pacific estuary.
Now supporters may be getting closer to victory. A provision in an immigration bill expected to pass the House next week would give the homeland security secretary authority to move forward with the project regardless of any laws that stand in the way, and would bar courts from hearing lawsuits against it.
“We need to get this thing done, and we need to do it for security reasons, and at some point we just need to do it,” said House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-California, whose district is just north of the border.
Wish we could just build a Great Wall of America. Remember the day’s when immigrants came here legally and actually wanted to become American’s?
Even tho it has nothing to do with this post I gotta put this picture up via Blackfive.
Ooh Rah!
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