[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 59 (Thursday, May 2, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4610-S4614]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
VOTE
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is, Is it the sense of the Senate
that debate on the bill (S. 1664) shall be brought to a close? The yeas
are automatic.
The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 100, nays 0, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 107 Leg.]
YEAS--100
Abraham
Akaka
Ashcroft
Baucus
Bennett
Biden
Bingaman
Bond
Boxer
Bradley
Breaux
Brown
Bryan
Bumpers
Burns
[[Page S4611]]
Byrd
Campbell
Chafee
Coats
Cochran
Cohen
Conrad
Coverdell
Craig
D'Amato
Daschle
DeWine
Dodd
Dole
Domenici
Dorgan
Exon
Faircloth
Feingold
Feinstein
Ford
Frist
Glenn
Gorton
Graham
Gramm
Grams
Grassley
Gregg
Harkin
Hatch
Hatfield
Heflin
Helms
Hollings
Hutchison
Inhofe
Inouye
Jeffords
Johnston
Kassebaum
Kempthorne
Kennedy
Kerrey
Kerry
Kohl
Kyl
Lautenberg
Leahy
Levin
Lieberman
Lott
Lugar
Mack
McCain
McConnell
Mikulski
Moseley-Braun
Moynihan
Murkowski
Murray
Nickles
Nunn
Pell
Pressler
Pryor
Reid
Robb
Rockefeller
Roth
Santorum
Sarbanes
Shelby
Simon
Simpson
Smith
Snowe
Specter
Stevens
Thomas
Thompson
Thurmond
Warner
Wellstone
Wyden
The PRESIDING OFFICER. On this vote, the yeas are 100, the nays are
0. Three-fifths of the Senators duly chosen and sworn having voted in
the affirmative, the motion is agreed to.
Under the previous order, the Senate will proceed to the immediate
consideration of H.R. 2202. The clerk will report.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
A bill (H.R. 2202) to amend the Immigration and Nationality
Act to improve deterrence of illegal immigration to the
United States by increasing border patrol and investigative
personnel, by increasing penalties for alien smuggling and
for document fraud, by reforming exclusion and deportation
law and procedures, by improving the verification system for
eligibility for employment, and through other measures, to
reform the legal immigration system and facilitate legal
entries into the United States, and for other purposes.
The Senate proceeded to consider the bill.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, all after the
enacting clause will be stricken, and the text of S. 1664, as amended,
is inserted in lieu thereof.
The question is on the engrossment of the amendment and third reading
of the bill.
The amendment was ordered to be engrossed, and the bill to be read a
third time.
The bill was read a third time.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The bill having been read the third time, the
question is, Shall the bill pass? The yeas and nays have been ordered.
The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk called the roll.
The result was announced--yeas 97, nays 3, as follows:
[Rollcall Vote No. 108 Leg.]
YEAS--97
Abraham
Akaka
Ashcroft
Baucus
Bennett
Biden
Bingaman
Bond
Boxer
Bradley
Breaux
Brown
Bryan
Bumpers
Burns
Byrd
Campbell
Chafee
Coats
Cochran
Cohen
Conrad
Coverdell
Craig
D'Amato
Daschle
DeWine
Dodd
Dole
Domenici
Dorgan
Exon
Faircloth
Feinstein
Ford
Frist
Glenn
Gorton
Gramm
Grams
Grassley
Gregg
Harkin
Hatch
Hatfield
Heflin
Helms
Hollings
Hutchison
Inhofe
Inouye
Jeffords
Johnston
Kassebaum
Kempthorne
Kennedy
Kerrey
Kerry
Kohl
Kyl
Lautenberg
Leahy
Levin
Lieberman
Lott
Lugar
Mack
McCain
McConnell
Mikulski
Moseley-Braun
Moynihan
Murkowski
Murray
Nickles
Nunn
Pell
Pressler
Pryor
Reid
Robb
Rockefeller
Roth
Santorum
Sarbanes
Shelby
Simpson
Smith
Snowe
Specter
Stevens
Thomas
Thompson
Thurmond
Warner
Wellstone
Wyden
NAYS--3
Feingold
Graham
Simon
The bill (H.R. 2202), as amended, was passed.
(The text of H.R. 2202 will be printed in a future edition of the
Record.)
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.
Mr. SIMPSON. I move to lay that motion on the table.
The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
Measure Placed on the Calendar--S. 1664
Mr. SIMPSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that S. 1664 be
placed back on the calendar.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
(Mr. FAIRCLOTH assumed the Chair.)
Mr. SIMPSON. Mr. President, I will not be overly long. I just want to
take a few minutes to thank my colleagues. This bill is the culmination
of 17 years of work. It is interesting for me, as Senator Ted Kennedy
and I were both on the Select Commission on Immigration and Refugee
Policy 17 years ago. With this bill, we have brought to fruition most
of the things that Father Ted Hesburgh and that commission suggested to
us then. We have also taken welcome direction from the U.S. Commission
on Immigration Reform, and the late Barbara Jordan, who chaired that
body. I think with what we have done in this bill, the recommendations
of those Commissions--instead of remaining as studies which stayed on
the shelf--have become sweeping measures to control illegal
immigration. This bill is truly sweeping.
I want to thank Ted Kennedy. Senator Kennedy has worked with me and
has helped me over quite a few hurdles. He chaired the Subcommittee on
Immigration before I came to the Senate. After the Republicans became
the majority party in 1980, I chaired it. There were times when we
disagreed, but we were never disagreeable. He is a very special friend
and a remarkable legislator of the first order.
I also want to thank Senator Bob Dole, who has consistently arranged
so that we could go forward with this important legislation. I
personally appreciate not only his leadership, but his friendship.
Serving as the assistant Republican leader--his assistant--for 10 years
was one of my greatest honors and privileges.
I must also thank my staff. My staff includes Dick Day--the
``Reverend'' Day, I call him. He is not a Reverend, but he should have
sainthood. Back in Cody, WY, I told him, I have an issue of disaster,
one filled with guilt and racism, and I will be called everything in
the book, but I need somebody to move to Washington to help me and love
me and help me along. Well, he did that. He has lost 5 pounds within
the last 13 days. I want to thank Charles Wood, who was been with me
via Harvard and Berkeley and who is willing to hang in there late at
night; John Ratigan, who has come to my staff from the State Department
with his wealth of knowledge; John Knepper, a wonderful, bright young
man from Wyoming, a very able person to assist me in these matters;
Trudy Settles has been a wonderful addition to our staff; and I must
also thank Kristel DeMay, Maureen McCafferty, and Uzma Ahmad--some our
marvelous interns at the Subcommittee on Immigration. I also want to
thank Ted Kennedy's staff, including Michael Myers; he and Dick Day
work together without any kind of partisanship or things that set them
apart in that way. Then there are Patty First, Bill Fleming, Ron Weich,
and Tom Perez--all of whom have been a great help in moving this bill
through the Senate. There have also been so many staff for so many
Senators who have worked so diligently on this issue.
I must say that we have completed 51 hours and 45 minutes on this
piece of legislation over 8 days--although that 51 hours 45 minutes
would have been considerably shortened without the minimum wage
activities of Senator Kennedy. Nevertheless, he may have actually saved
us a great deal of time because when we went into the cloture, with its
parliamentary limitation of germaneness, we were saved a great deal of
time on some very controversial amendments. I do not want to give him
too much credit, though, because I am sure we will be trying to undo
him in a few hours.
Do not go home and analyze the votes of each Senator, though, because
you will never be able to explain them. Every Senator's staff is
wondering why he voted this way or that. This immigration issue is
about America, and America is about conflict and resolution. It is
debate about these issue that pull and tear at our hearts, and that is
what makes us the country we are--the most magnificent country on this
bright earth.
This debate is the essence of America--passion, conflict,
controversy, all the rest of it. It has been an exceedingly pleasant
experience. I mean that. I love the work. I wish Senator Kennedy well
as he proceeds forward with it in the years to come. I will be
observing from my future teaching post at Harvard, being assured that
he is
[[Page S4612]]
doing it correctly. I thank my colleagues. I thank those on the floor.
I thank my former co-assistant leader, Senator Ford. He helps me when
he can and vexes me whenever he has the opportunity. Yet, I had come to
enjoy him thoroughly in my work when we served together as assistant
leaders of our parties. He did not care what I did, as long as we did
not do anything with the motor voter law. That was easy to accomplish.
David Pryor, who sits here, is a friend who came with me to this
place. Bill Bradley and I have a great friendship, and we will go on
and do other things, and while the rest of you will be here to do the
work. As I look around the Chamber--I do not intend to address all the
Members here, but I see my colleague from Montana, who is a very
special, wonderful and earthy friend. Then there is Bob Dole, who is, I
think, a most remarkable leader for this body--and perhaps other
places, too.
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, the vote that was just taken, 97 to 3, I
think, says it all. The U.S. Senate has been debating this issue for 8
days. It has been closely divided on a number of different issues. But
I feel that most of the Members, or virtually all of the Members, feel
that their views were given an opportunity to be presented and to be
examined and to be considered and to be voted on. And the final outcome
of this is 97 to 3. It is really an extraordinary personal achievement
and accomplishment by my friend and colleague, the Senator from
Wyoming, Senator Simpson.
Al Simpson and I have been friends for many years. Although we have
some differences, we have a deep sense of mutual respect and
friendship, which has been valuable to certainly me and, I think, to
him. Why a Senator from Wyoming would be willing to take on this issue
on immigration has always been extraordinary and interesting to me.
This is not a burning issue in his particular State.
In my State of Massachusetts, they still remember the bitter whip of
the national origin quota system that divided groups and communities on
the basis of where one was born. Senators from the western part of the
country remember the Asian Pacific triangle that discriminated on the
basis of race and discriminated against Asians up until 1965. And in
many parts of the country, in between, there are communities and
families who have cared very deeply about this.
Senator Simpson has seen the importance of this issue as a national
issue and an issue for the country. This issue, as he has described it,
involves so many different aspects of human emotions of passion, and
discrimination, and reunification of families, and exploitation, and he
has taken this on as a member of the Hesburgh Commission for Legal and
Illegal Immigration, as a key figure.
We passed the Refugee Act in 1980, and then in 1986, and in 1990, and
now again, to deal with something, which is of very important concern
to all Americans, and that is the whole question of the illegals that
come to this country.
This legislation, I think, will be extremely important and, I
believe, effective in stemming the tide of illegals, not just because
of the expansion of the border patrols, although that will have some
effect, and not just because of the increased penalties in smuggling,
as all that will have an effect; it will have an important impact in
helping American workers get jobs and be able to hold them and have the
enhanced opportunity for employment.
That, I think, is very, very important as well. But most of all I
want to pay my respects to Senator Simpson for his dedication and focus
on this issue. If this issue had come up over a year ago, after the
1994 campaign, when the flames of distrust and anger were being fanned
in many parts of the country, we would not have had this
legislation. It has only been because of the exhaustive time that the
Senator has taken with each and every Member, Republican and Democrat,
in the Judiciary Committee and talking to each of the various groups
that have a particular interest that we have gotten to this point, and
his willingness to listen to the recommendations of Barbara Jordan. I
thought of Barbara Jordan when I heard that last rollcall because this
was an issue which Barbara Jordan, a distinguished lady and an
outstanding congresswoman, that struck the conscience of the Nation on
many different occasions, and tireless in her own pursuit of justice
and the elimination of forms of discrimination. She took on an
enormously challenging task when few others would touch it, and in
working through, made a series of recommendations. That has been the
basis of this particular proposal.
So I give respect to my chairman, the chairman for the remainder of
this session. I think all of us who know the importance of this issue
will know that Alan Simpson has played an extremely important role,
addressing in a serious way, bringing judgment, conscience,
consideration, and intelligence to this issue. I think this country is
better served by his service.
I want to mention just briefly, Mr. President, other members of our
committee: Senator Simon. Senator Simon, I, and Senator Simpson for a
brief period were the only three members of the Immigration Committee.
He has been a steady contributor and has an unwavering commitment to
fairness which has marked his career.
Senator Feinstein, for her own integrity and effectiveness in dealing
with our immigration laws; Senator Grassley; Senator Kyl; Senator
Specter--all active on the subcommittee.
My colleague, Senator Biden, Senator Feingold, Senator Abraham, and
Senator DeWine are deeply committed to our immigrant heritage and made
major contributions to legal immigration and effectively in relation to
illegal reforms.
Senator Hatch, who is chairman of our Judiciary Committee, has long
been involved in the human side of immigration and has handled lengthy
and contentious markups with fairness. We had very extensive markups
with broad attendance--virtually unanimous attendance--and he presided
over them with fairness;
Senator Graham, who has presented the case for a safety net for legal
immigrants and the need to avoid the unfunded mandates, as well as
Senator Chafee and Senator Leahy on those issues of asylum. That has
been a matter of particular interest and concern to him. He has been
very effective on this bill on that.
Finally, I want to mention Michael Myers, who has been of such value
and help, I believe, to the Senate and to the country, as our other
staff have, with Democrats and Republicans. I think all of us perhaps--
maybe there are those; I do not--but there are those who underestimate
the power of good will and intelligence of those who provide such
assistance to all of us and make our jobs easier. Michael Myers has
been there:
Patti Frist, Tom Perez, Bill Fleming, Melody Barnes, Ron Weich,
Michael Mershon; and I think that we on our side have felt that the
Republican staff, Dick Day, Chip Wood, John Knepper, John Ratigan, and
Chuck Blahous have also been not only working for Republicans but
Democrats alike.
Carlos Angulo, who has been working with Senator Simon; Leeci Eve
with Senator Biden, and Bruce Cohen for Senator Leahy; all of those and
others have been of great help.
Finally, I want to thank Tom Daschle as well, who as we were going
through different times and phases of the consideration of this
legislation and different aspects of it, has been a constant source of
strength to me and the other members of the committee.
We look forward to the conference, and we will do our very best to
bring back to the Senate a conference that carries forward the
commitments of the Senate to the extent that we possibly can. This is a
bill that deserves to be signed by the President of the United States.
Mr. BURNS addressed the Chair.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Montana.
Mr. BURNS. Mr. President, parliamentary inquiry. What is the order of
the day?
Mr. SIMPSON. Mr. President, if I may--if the Senator will yield for a
moment to let me propose a unanimous-consent request, and then the
Senator from Montana may proceed.
I just want to add one note. I failed to pay tribute to Chuck
Blahous. He has not been part of the immigration staff, but he is my
legislative director, and was he pressed into service on this bill in a
most extraordinary way.
I, too, thank my colleagues on the subcommittee: Senator Kennedy, of
course; Senator Simon, a steady friend
[[Page S4613]]
for 25 years; Senator Feinstein; Senator Grassley, who is always there,
always steady, always someone to count on; Senator Kyl, who will leave
a great impression and mark, along with Senator Feinstein, on this
subcommittee in the future; Senator Specter and his steadiness; Bill
Roth, my old steady friend who campaigned for me back when it was not
safe to do that. I see him here. I thank him for his work.
Mr. DOLE addressed the Chair.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair recognizes the honorable majority
leader.
Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, first, let me congratulate my colleagues,
Senator Simpson and Senator Kennedy, for completing action on what I
consider to be a very good bipartisan immigration bill. It took 8 days.
We had it scheduled for 3. So we have lost a little time. But I think
the end product is probably worth it, and we hope to make up the time
in the next few weeks on other matters.
Mr. President, we have before us an issue of great national
importance--reform of this Nation's laws on illegal immigration. But
while many Members have worked hard to move this issue forward, let's
face it: The moving force has been my colleague and friend, the Senator
from Wyoming--Senator Simpson. There are so many ways to describe how
he has served America, but I believe that his work in this area will
always be at the top of the list.
Illegal immigration reform is not a partisan issue. It is not a
simple issue.
But make no mistake about it, this legislation is long overdue.
Mr. President, we are a nation justly proud of our heritage. That
heritage is inseparable from the human experience of millions upon
millions of immigrants--from every country on Earth.
That heritage is also bound up in a reverence for the rule of law--
for playing by the rules.
The Immigration Control and Financial Responsibility Act combines
both of these strands of our national character.
We cannot remain a great country and fail to control our borders.
We cannot evade one of the principal obligations of the Federal
Government and expect the States and local communities to pick up the
tab.
We cannot reward those who break our laws by picking the pockets of
hardworking Americans.
In short, Mr. President, we are proud that our country is a nation of
immigrants and a land of opportunity--but we will insist that everyone
play by the rules.
The legislation before us provides for increases in the numbers of
enforcement personnel and creates additional detention facilities.
Perhaps most important, it provides for the first time some realistic
hope that our Border Patrol can cope with the overwhelming nature of
illegal immigration by increasing the numbers of agents.
The bill, however, also recognizes that fully half of the illegals
currently in this country were once here legally under a visa, but then
simply stayed. This is not a problem that can be addressed by fences
along the border--this is a matter of the will to enforce our laws.
Visa overstayers are here now--when we discover who they are they
should be sent on their way.
The bill also provides strong measures for perhaps the ultimate
insult to our national sovereignty. This is the case when those who
violate our immigration laws, the violate our criminal laws as well.
I am particularly pleased that the Senate adopted the Dole-Coverdell
amendment which closed some of the loopholes that currently exist in
our deportation laws.
Under the Dole-Coverdell amendment, violations of domestic violence,
stalking, child abuse laws, and crimes of sexual violence have been
added as deportable offenses.
It is long past time to stop the vicious acts of stalking, child
abuse, and sexual abuse. We cannot prevent in every case the often
justified fear that too often haunts our citizens. But we can make sure
that any alien that commits such an act will no longer remain within
our borders.
Mr. President, I salute my colleagues who have worked so hard on this
legislation. They have rendered America a great service, and it is my
hope that a strong, bipartisan vote in favor of this bill will send a
message that America will no longer stand by passively--we will take
control of our borders. And most of all, Mr. President, we will ensure
that no one cuts in line in front of those who play by the rules.
So I salute my colleagues who have worked hard on this legislation.
They have rendered America a great service. It is my hope that we can
come out of the conference with a strong bipartisan bill.
I again congratulate my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for
their efforts. I yield the floor.
Mr. HATFIELD. Mr. President, today the Senate passed much needed
legislation to restructure our Nation's laws with respect to illegal
immigration. I want to take this opportunity to commend my colleagues
Senator Simpson and Senator Kennedy for their diligence and leadership
in crafting legislation to address this issue. As this debate has
shown, the highly emotional and diverse views on the issues surrounding
both legal and illegal immigration makes it very difficult to get a
consensus on legislation reforming our immigration laws.
Despite previous efforts by Congress to control illegal immigration,
the evidence shows that thousands of people cross the border illegally
each year. Clearly, our Nation simply cannot continue to absorb this
unregulated stream of illegal aliens. The costs to society of
permitting a large group of people to live in an illegal, second-class
status are enormous. It strains not only the financial resources of our
local, State and Federal governments, but also the compassion of our
people. The Immigration Control and Financial Responsibility Act will
help ensure that the Federal Government meets it's responsibility to
enforce our Nation's illegal immigration policies.
This legislation nearly doubles the number of Border Patrol agents
over the next 5 years, authorizes an additional 300 INS investigators,
increases criminal penalties for alien smuggling and document fraud,
and authorizes additional detention facilities for illegal aliens.
Through these increased enforcement activities, our Nation will be
better equipped to stem the flow of illegal immigrants across our
borders and to respond to the problems and abuses which accompany the
presence of a significant illegal population. For these reasons, I
voted in favor of final passage of this legislation.
I did so not without some reservations. While I believe in the
underlying principles of the legislation, I have serious concerns over
some of the provisions agreed to in this bill. I am concerned about the
costs and administrative burdens this legislation may impose on the
States by the extension of deeming to all Federal means-tested
assistance programs. Additionally, by failing to exempt some minimal
emergency and health services from deeming, I am fearful that we will
discourage legal aliens from seeking basic treatments such as
immunizations and prenatal care. As we know, this can lead to adverse
effects to the public health and safety.
In addition, the original version of the bill contained provisions
which imposed unwarranted new bars to an individual's ability to seek
political asylum in this country. Due to my concern about these summary
exclusion procedures, I joined Senator Leahy as a cosponsor of his
amendment to limit the use of summary exclusion except in emergency
migration situations.
Mr. President, most persons who are fleeing persecution do not have
the luxury of asking their governments for appropriate exit papers to
leave their countries. Many flee without documents. Others flee with
fraudulent documents. The summary exclusion provisions in the
underlying bill had the potential of excluding these people if they
failed to convince an INS border officer that they have a credible fear
of persecution.
I can understand the concern that our asylum laws have been abused in
the past. But we have taken steps to reform the asylum system. In 1995,
our asylum system was tightened and adequate resources have been
invested to root out these abuses. This effort has been successful; 90
percent of claims are now adjudicated within 60 days of their receipt.
There has been a drastic decline in new asylum applications, from
13,000 per month at the end of 1994 to 3,000 per month currently. One
reason for this is that asylum seekers are
[[Page S4614]]
no longer automatically eligible for work authorization. As a result of
the reforms, our asylum system now works to ensure that legitimate
asylum seekers are protected and those who file fraudulent claims are
weeded out.
We have a tradition in this country of protecting bona fide refugees.
We have an asylum system that is working well to continue this
tradition. The provisions included in the underlying bill would have
undermined our good efforts to the detriment of the very people we are
seeking to protect. The Leahy amendment appropriately gives the
Attorney General the flexibility to address emergency migration
situations but retains our current asylum procedures for those who
arrive in the United States and request political asylum. I am happy to
say that my colleagues in the Senate recognized the importance of
retaining this flexibility and voted to include this amendment in the
final bill.
While I support the general principles underlying this bill, I
believe we must also find new ways to address the problems of illegal
immigration. I am among the first to admit that we cannot afford to
absorb an unregulated flow of immigrants into our country. However, I
am concerned by the shortsighted approach that is taken to address this
problem. Sometimes we find ourselves so caught up in the crises of the
day that we forget to look at the root causes of problems. In the case
of illegal immigration, I think we have fallen into this trap.
We can continue to increase our Border Patrol and our enforcement
activities in the United States. We can build a wall that stretches
along the United States-Mexico border and the United States-Canadian
border. While this may make it more difficult for illegal immigrants to
enter the United States, I do not believe that these measures will
solve the problem of illegal immigration. Similarly, we can tighten
employer sanctions and cut off all public benefits for illegal aliens,
in an attempt to take away the ``magnets'' which create the desire for
people to enter our country with or without proper documentation.
I believe we must look beyond these so-called magnets to focus on
creating opportunities for people within their own countries so they
aren't compelled to leave in search of better opportunities to support
their families. To do this, the United States must maintain it's
leadership in promoting human rights, democracy, and economic stability
in our neighboring countries, and around the world. Unfortunately, I
fear that we have recently begun to retreat from this position. In the
past few years, the United States has curtailed it's spending on
foreign aid and humanitarian assistance programs. This year, we
essentially demolished our international family planning program, which
will severely affect maternal and child health around the world.
Further, we continue to funnel arms into the poorest and most
politically unstable countries across the globe.
We cannot continue along this path. It is only when we address the
root causes of illegal immigration--poverty, warfare, and persecution--
that the United States can truly address and eliminate this problem.
One final note, Mr. President. In this bill, we have significantly
enhanced the ability of the Immigration and Naturalization Service
[INS] to meet one of its primary missions, to control the entry of
illegal immigrants into this country. But, I would like to take this
opportunity to remind my colleagues that the enforcement mission is not
the only mission of the INS. The INS also exists to serve, to meet the
needs of citizens, legal residents, and visitors. It has the
responsibility to provide service to millions of individuals and
employers who are following the rules, and trying to bring family and
employees into the United States legally.
Due to the recent national attention that has been given to illegal
immigration, I fear that this part of the INS mission statement has
been severely neglected. For example, many district and regional INS
offices have unreliable phone service, have tremendous backlogs in
paperwork, and fail to initiate community outreach. My State's district
office in Portland, OR, no longer even distributes necessary forms to
the public. I had planned to introduce an amendment to this bill which
would have addressed this situation. It would have required all INS
district and regional offices to distribute forms, and would have
expressed the Senate's desire that the INS provide adequate resources
to fulfill its service mission.
Unfortunately, I did not have an opportunity to bring this amendment
to the floor for consideration on this bill. However, I believe this is
an issue of utmost importance and will continue to pursue enhancing the
INS's service mission through subsequent legislation or through
communications with Commissioner Doris Meissner. Citizens, permanent
residents, and visitors across the country need, and deserve, to have
access to the services only the INS can provide for them.
____________________