[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 118 (Monday, September 13, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H8131-H8132]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        IMMIGRATION RESTRUCTURING AND ACCOUNTABILITY ACT OF 1999

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Simpson). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening to talk 
about the Immigration Restructuring and Accountability Act of 1999 that 
I have offered along with the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers), 
the gentleman from California (Mr. Berman) and others.
  Partly this discussion this evening is prompted by a very effective 
hearing, field hearing, that was held today that I just came from in 
Chicago, Illinois, called by the chairman of the Committee on the 
Judiciary, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde) and attended by the 
chairman of the subcommittee, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Smith) and 
myself, the ranking Democrat on the Subcommittee on Immigration and 
Claims of the House Committee on the Judiciary.
  What I was most struck by is the consensus of all those who had 
gathered that this is a Nation of laws but it is also a Nation of 
immigrants. We all have come from somewhere. And we all stand willing 
and waiting, if you will, to be patriotic and to love this country if 
given the opportunity. In fact, one of the statements made by the 
witnesses was that many immigrants and most of them come to this land 
for a better way of life. We heard testimony from

[[Page H8132]]

very outstanding members of the Illinois delegation, Democrats and 
Republicans, we heard testimony from district constituency workers of 
Members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans, and we heard testimony 
from the INS regional director. Sadly, however, much of the commentary 
was about the ills of the INS, the difficulties in getting service, the 
difficulties in getting the right answers, the difficulties in the 
timeliness of the responses, the long lines. I was very gratified to 
hear by the INS regional director, however, that he was struck by these 
complaints, and of course, had been working over the last couple of 
months to remedy the concerns that had been expressed. He offered on 
behalf of his staff a genuine interest to work with congressional 
offices but most importantly to do the taxpayers' business, and, that 
is, to do the very best task that he might be able to do.
  I believe, however, that he needs additional assistance. And one of 
the points that was made is that we should not throw money, good money, 
if you will, after bad. We should not throw money at a problem and yet 
not be able to fix its very infrastructure. And so the Immigration 
Restructuring and Accountability Act of 1999, I believe, offers real 
reform.
  Americans, I think, in their heart of hearts appreciate the fact that 
this is a Nation that welcomes immigrants in order to have a better way 
of life. We realize that we support and our Constitution and our laws 
support legal immigration, not illegal immigration. In order to do 
that, we must encourage those who seek to go through the processes, the 
legal processes, we must expedite that process, we must not penalize 
and be punitive, we must not be negative, we must not characterize 
immigrants as people who are taking and not giving, deadbeats who are 
not willing to contribute to this society. I could list a whole litany 
of contributions that immigrants throughout the years and ages have 
given to this Nation. And all of us stand in a position that we can 
claim some contribution to this Nation.
  The Immigration Restructuring and Accountability Act of 1999 does 
several things. We restructure and reorganize the immigration function 
within the Department of Justice through the creation of a fair, 
effective and efficient National Immigration Bureau, the NIB. Such a 
bureau is urgently needed, given both the importance of this entity's 
mission, the hundreds of thousands of people, of family members who are 
already citizens within this country and in the international community 
and the size of the agency which is larger than five current Cabinet 
agencies. We need to establish the INS not as an agency but as a bureau 
to separate the enforcement and adjudication functions of the Federal 
immigration function. The goal of such separation is to lead to more 
clarity of mission and greater accountability which in turn will lead 
to more efficient adjudications and more accountable, consistent, 
effective and professional enforcement to create strong centralized 
leadership for integrated policymaking and implementation.
  Coordination is a key. In order to fulfill this new agency's 
important responsibilities, a single voice is needed at the top to 
coordinate policy matters and interpret complex laws in both 
enforcement and adjudications. We must also emphasize that the INS, now 
named INS, I hope the NIB, key goal is service. There is an enforcement 
responsibility and we all know the tragedy of the Resendez-Ramirez 
case, the alleged serial killer, we want to end that as well by giving 
the enforcement aspect the tools that it needs to ensure that illegal 
and also criminal aliens do not make it into the United States, and if 
they do so that they are caught immediately.
  To coordinate policymaking and planning between the National 
Immigration Bureau offices so as to ensure efficiencies and 
effectiveness that result from shared infrastructure and unified 
implementation of the law among the office of immigration, 
adjudication, enforcement, prehearing services and detention and shared 
services. Those are the subsets of what I think we need to fully fund 
the adjudication function. Many, many people are in the process, are in 
the works, if you will, yet they wait 3 and 4 and 5 years in order to 
be adjudicated to become a naturalized citizen. This keeps them from 
employment. This keeps them from planning for their future. This 
disallows young people to get scholarships. It prevents young people 
from getting into college.
  We are a Nation, Mr. Speaker, of laws, but we are also a Nation of 
immigrants. I would ask my colleagues to join me in cosponsoring the 
Immigration Restructuring and Accounting Act of 1999 for real INS 
reform.

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