[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 64 (Wednesday, April 3, 2002)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 15753-15755]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-8011]


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DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

Immigration and Naturalization Service

8 CFR Part 286

[INS No. 2180-01]
RIN 1115-AG47


Establishment of a $3 Immigration User Fee for Certain Commercial 
Vessel Passengers Previously Exempt

AGENCY: Immigration and Naturalization Service, Justice.

ACTION: Proposed rule.

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SUMMARY: This rule proposes to amend the Immigration and Naturalization 
Service (Service) regulations in accordance with section 109 of the 
Department of Justice Appropriations Act, 2002 (Title I of Public Law 
107-77), signed November 28, 2001. This law authorizes the collection 
of a $3 fee for certain commercial vessel passengers previously exempt 
under section 286(e)(1) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (Act). 
This proposed rule would amend the Service regulations to require 
certain commercial vessel operators and/or their ticketing agents to 
charge and collect a $3 user fee from every commercial vessel passenger 
whose journey originated in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, a territory or 
possession of the United States, or an adjacent island

[[Page 15754]]

except those individuals exempted under section 286(e) of the Act or 
under 8 CFR part 286. This action is necessary to implement section 109 
of the Department of Justice Appropriations Act, 2002.

DATES: Written comments must be submitted on or before May 3, 2002.

ADDRESSES: Please submit written comments to the Director, Regulations 
and Forms Services Division, Immigration and Naturalization Service, 
425 I Street, NW., Room 4034, Washington, DC 20536. To ensure proper 
handling, please reference INS No. 2180-01 on your correspondence. You 
may also submit comments electronically to the Service at 
[email protected]. When submitting comments electronically please 
include the INS No. 2180-01 in the subject box. Comments are available 
for public inspection at the above address by calling (202) 514-3048 to 
arrange for an appointment.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Georgia Mayers, Chief of Cash 
Management, Office of Finance, Immigration and Naturalization Service, 
425 I Street, NW., Room 6034, Washington, DC 20536, telephone (202) 
305-1200.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

What Is the Immigration User Fee?

    Beginning in Fiscal Year 1987, the Service was mandated by Congress 
via the 1987 Appropriations Act for the Department of Justice, Public 
Law 99-591, to collect (with limited exceptions) an immigration user 
fee for each passenger arriving in the United States by commercial air 
or sea conveyance. Immigration user fee funds are used to operate air 
and sea inspection services and to fund other related activities.

How Will the Service Use the Fees That Are Collected?

    As provided by law, the user fees that are collected may be used, 
among other things to:
     Provide immigration inspection and preinspection services 
for commercial aircraft and vessels;
     Provide overtime immigration inspection services for 
commercial aircraft or vessels;
     Administer debt recovery, including the establishment and 
operation of a national collections office;
     Expand, operate, and maintain information systems for 
nonimmigrant control and debt collection;
     Detect fraudulent documents used by passengers traveling 
to the United States, including training of, and technical assistance 
to, commercial airline personnel regarding such detection;
     Provide detention and removal services for inadmissible 
aliens arriving on commercial aircraft and vessels and for any 
inadmissible alien who has attempted illegal entry into the United 
States through avoidance of immigration inspection at air or sea ports-
of-entry; and,
     Administer removal and asylum screening proceedings at air 
or sea ports-of-entry for inadmissible aliens arriving on commercial 
aircraft and vessels, including immigration removal proceedings 
resulting from the presentation of fraudulent documents and the failure 
to present documentation and for any inadmissible alien who has 
attempted illegal entry into the United States by avoiding immigration 
inspection at air or sea ports-of-entry.

Why Is the Service Proposing To Apply a $3 Inspection Fee To 
Certain Previously Exempt Commercial Vessel Passengers?

    The authorization to charge and collect a user fee from certain 
previously exempt commercial vessel passengers is provided in section 
109 of the Department of Justice Appropriations Act, 2002 which was 
enacted on November 28, 2001. Prior to the enactment of this law, 
Commercial vessel passengers, whose journeys originated in Canada, 
Mexico, a state, territory or possession of the United States, or an 
adjacent island, were statutorily exempt from paying the Immigration 
User Fee prescribed by section 286(d) of the Act. While these vessel 
passengers were exempt from paying the fee, the Service was still 
required to provide inspection services. This exemption resulted in the 
Service's inability to invest in necessary staffing and technology 
resources. The new fee will begin to provide for the recovery of 
inspection operations and related inspection activities that support 
seaport immigration inspection.

Did the Department of Justice Appropriation Act, 2002 Specify Any 
Other Changes to Section 286 of the Act?

    The Department of Justice Appropriations Act, 2002 also directed 
the Attorney General to increase the immigration user fee prescribed in 
section 286(d) of the Act by $1 from $6 to $7 for all passengers 
previously required to pay the $6 fee. This change has been published 
in the Federal Register as a final rule.

What Changes Are Proposed in This Rule?

    This rule proposes to add 8 CFR 286.2(b) and revise 8 CFR 286.3(a) 
to provide for the collection of the $3 commercial vessel fee and 
removes the exemption of commercial vessel passengers whose journeys 
originated in Canada, Mexico, a state, territory or possession of the 
United States, or an adjacent island. In accordance with the Department 
of Justice Appropriations Act, 2002, the rule would also include an 
exemption from the $3 fee for passengers arriving by way of Great Lakes 
international ferries or Great Lakes vessels on the Great Lakes and 
connecting waterways when operating on a regular schedule.

How Is the $3 Fee Proposed To Be Collected?

    Affected commercial vessel carriers and ticket-selling agents would 
be subject to the same fee collection responsibilities, remittance and 
statement procedures, maintenance of records, and penalties as stated 
in 8 CFR 286.2, 286.4, 286.5, 268.6 and 286.7 and that are currently 
required of other non-exempt immigration user fee remittances.

Regulatory Flexibility Act

    The Commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, in 
accordance with the Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. 605(b)), has 
reviewed this regulation and by approving it certifies that this rule 
will not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of 
small entities. Immigration user fees are already being collected by 
commercial vessel carriers and/or their ticketing agents in connection 
with voyages originating in previously non-exempt areas. Since the 
passengers rather than the carriers ultimately pay the immigration 
inspection user fee, these passengers are not considered small entities 
as that term is defined in 5 U.S.C. 601(6), this rule does not bear an 
impact on small entities.

Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995

    This rule will not result in the expenditure by State, local, and 
tribal governments in the aggregate, or by the private sector, of $100 
million or more in any one year, and it will not significantly or 
uniquely affect small governments. Therefore, no actions were deemed 
necessary under the provisions of the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 
1995.

[[Page 15755]]

Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996

    This rule is not a major rule as defined by section 804 of the 
Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Act of 1996. This rule will not 
result in an annual effect on the economy of $100 million or more; a 
major increase in cost or prices; or significant adverse effects on 
competition, employment, investment, productivity, innovation, or on 
the ability of United States-based companies to compete with foreign-
based companies in domestic and export markets.

Executive Order 12866

    This rule is considered by the Department of Justice, Immigration 
and Naturalization Service, to be a ``significant regulatory action'' 
under Executive Order 12866, section 3(f), Regulatory Planning and 
Review. Accordingly, this regulation has been submitted to the Office 
of Management and Budget for review.

Executive Order 13132

    This rule will not have substantial direct effects on the States, 
on the relationship between the National Government and the States, or 
on the distribution of power and responsibilities among the various 
levels of government. Therefore, in accordance with section 6 of 
Executive Order 13132, it is determined that this rule does not have 
sufficient federalism implications to warrant the preparation of a 
federalism summary impact statement.

Executive Order 12988 Civil Justice Reform

    This rule meets the applicable standards set forth in sections 3(a) 
and 3(b)(2) of Executive Order 12988.

List of Subjects in 8 CFR Part 286

    Air carriers, Immigration, Maritime carriers, Reporting and 
recordkeeping requirements.

    Accordingly, part 286 of chapter I of title 8 of the Code of 
Federal Regulations is proposed to be amended as follows:

PART 286--IMMIGRATION USER FEE

    1. The authority citation for part 286 continues to read as 
follows:

    Authority: 8 U.S.C. 1103, 1356; 8 CFR part 2.

    2. Section 286.2 is amended by redesignating paragraph (b) as 
paragraph (c), and by adding a new paragraph (b), to read as follows:


Sec. 286.2  Fee for arrival of passengers aboard commercial aircraft or 
commercial vessels.

* * * * *
    (b) A fee, in the amount prescribed in section 286(e)(3) of the 
Act, per individual is charged and collected by the Service for the 
immigration inspection at a port-of-entry in the United States, or for 
the preinspection in a place outside the United States of each 
commercial vessel passenger whose journey originated in the U.S., 
Canada, Mexico, a state, territory or possession of the United States, 
and adjacent islands, except as provided in Sec. 286.3.
* * * * *
    3. Section 286.3 is amended by revising the introductory text, and 
by revising paragraph (a) to read as follows:


Sec. 286.3  Exceptions.

    The fees set forth in Secs. 286.2(a) and 286.2(b) shall not be 
charged or collected from passengers who fall within any one of the 
following categories:
    (a) Persons arriving at designated ports-of-entry of passengers 
arriving by the following vessels, when operating on a regular 
schedule: Great Lakes international ferries or Great Lakes vessels on 
the Great Lakes and connecting waterways;
* * * * *

    Dated: March 28, 2002.
James W. Ziglar,
Commissioner, Immigration and Naturalization Service.
[FR Doc. 02-8011 Filed 4-2-02; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4410-10-M