Guest Column

Intelligence Reform Bill Passes: What this Means for the Latino Community

From NCLR

NCLR worked hard over the past months to keep an eye on the harmful provisions of the intelligence bill. Although the main intent of the bill was the reform of our nation’s intelligence infrastructure, provisions related to border security and immigration were included in each package.

The Bill Does Include Some Immigration Provisions Important to Our Community   Thank you for all the work you did to voice your opposition to the anti-immigrant provisions in the intelligence reform bill. As members of Congress were receiving calls from you and other advocates, they also heard from FAIR (Federation for American Immigration Reform), which was applying pressure for inclusion of those same anti-immigrant provisions.

The provisions of particular significance for the Latino community relate to the issuance of driver’s licenses and the increase in border patrol and detention space along the U.S.-Mexico border.

WE HAVE OUR WORK CUT OUT FOR US. Immigration reform is going to be a hot topic in the 109th Congress, and we will continue to fight for a comprehensive immigration reform model that is vastly different from the one promoted by Representative Sensenbrenner: the old model, the failed model, the one that was rejected for the most part from the intelligence reform package. We hope that cooler heads will prevail in the 109th as they did during this latest round of negotiations.

Which Immigration Provisions Were Struck?

Thanks to the great work of advocates around the country, many of the worst anti-immigrant provisions were struck from the final bill. These included:

 Prohibiting states from issuing driver?s licenses to undocumented immigrants, and establishing complicated new requirements for other foreign nationals who seek legal state-issued identity documents
 Banning federal agency acceptance of foreign government-issued documents, including consular IDs
 Expanding expedited removal to the interior for people who cannot show five years? physical presence
 Requiring asylum-seekers to prove the ?central motive? of their persecutors
 Further curtailing immigrants? due process rights
 Making broad categories of people eligible for indefinite detention or deportation to countries where they could be tortured or which have no functioning governments

Which Immigration Provisions Were in the Final Package?

While some anti-immigrant voices are claiming that the bill ignored immigration issues, the Intelligence Reform bill DOES contain some immigration provisions that are important to our community. To name a few, the bill includes:

 Development of a plan to use remote surveillance equipment on the southwest border (section 5201)
 An increase in border and interior enforcement agents and detention space (sections 5202-5204)
 New visa application requirements (sections 5301-5302)
 Expansion of removal grounds to include visa revocation or training at a terrorist training camp (sections 5304, 5402)
 Enhanced penalties for human smuggling (5401)
 A General Accounting Office study on the asylum system and whether it is vulnerable to exploitation by terrorists or terrorist suspects (5403)

NCLR will be tracking the implementation of these provisions and will continue to advocate for the Latino community.

A couple of other sections are notable for immigrant advocates:

Driver’s Licenses: Contrary to the claims of some, the final bill DOES contain driver’s license provisions.
In Title VII, Subtitle B, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is charged with developing “standards” for state driver’s licenses and identification documents. These standards will focus on ensuring that IDs are secure and tamper-resistant, and define the types of ‘feeder documents’ one can use to establish identity and eligibility in getting a license. However, they are not supposed to interfere with states’ rights to determine the “kinds” of people eligible for licenses. The standards will be developed in consultation with the states and other “interested parties,” which can include organizations representing immigrants. The bill also charges DHS with setting guidelines for the categories of documents that can be used to establish identity for boarding planes.
A summary of the final language is available at the NILC website http://www.nilc.org/immspbs/DLs/DL_provisions_in_Intelligence_Reform_Act.pdf
Contact Michele Waslin at mwaslin@nclr.org for more information about the drivers’ license provisions.

Finally, in a bit of good news, one immigration bill we supported this year made it into the final intelligence reform package. The Homeland Security Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Protection Act (S. 2536/H.R. 5182) strengthens protections for civil rights and civil liberties in the Department of Homeland Security. This provision builds upon and enhances structures in DHS to guard against abuse of authority and violations of civil rights and civil liberties within the department. This legislation was introduced by Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) and Representative Bennie Thompson (D-MS), and can be found in Title VIII, Subtitle C of the 9/11 bill conference report. This is an important victory, and we thank Senator Collins for keeping it on the agenda as the 9/11 bill conference committee conducted its negotiations.

What Do We Face in the Future?

Pointing to a December 7 White House letter to conferees and congressional leaders which leaves the door open for “improving our asylum laws and standards for issuing driver’s licenses” in the 109th Congress, Representative Sensenbrenner has refused to declare defeat. He has already vowed to introduce a bill on January 4 - the first day of the new Congress “to accomplish real driver's license reform, - tighten immigration laws, and finish a fence along California's border with Mexico. As Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, he certainly has the platform to make sure such a bill is considered in committee, and it is quite possible that House floor consideration may be on the horizon early next year. Advocates are already gearing up to beat back these and other immigration restrictions proposed in the 109th.

The House vote on the final intelligence package is telling. Three hundred thirty-six members voted in favor of the compromise bill, while just 75 members voted against it. The majority of these dissenters are members of Representative Tancredo’s (R-CO) immigration restrictionists caucus, and felt more strongly about the deleted immigration provisions than they did about the intelligence system reforms recommended by the 9/11 Commission.

For More Information

See http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2004/roll544.xml  for a roll call of the House vote (to see how your representative voted).

See http://www.house.gov/rules/s2845confrept.pdf  for the final bill language.

*We thank the National Immigration Forum for its contribution to this summary and background.