Union Tribune April 19, 2002 Senate OKs bill aimed at bolstering border security By MARCUS STERN and JERRY KAMMER  COPLEY NEWS SERVICE  WASHINGTON – The Senate voted 97-0 yesterday to tighten controls over visas for foreign students and other international visitors in an effort to make it harder for terrorists to enter or remain in the country. The bill also calls for adding 3,000 border enforcement agents to be hired over the next five years and orders federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies to provide more information to the State Department and Immigration and Naturalization Service to help with visa decisions. It also calls for improving pay and training for border agents. The border security bill now goes back to the House, which already had passed it in a slightly different form. Lawmakers expect to easily reconcile the two versions and send it on to the White House where President Bush is expected to sign it. The Senate bill sets an October 2004 deadline for developing and issuing tamper-resistant, machine-readable travel documents with biometric identifiers, such as fingerprints. It also requires that equipment to read the new documents be installed at all the nation's ports of entry by then, providing border inspectors instant access to law enforcement databases. The bill requires commercial carriers to provide advance passenger manifests to U.S. authorities before landing their planes or ships. "Our bill provides real solutions to real problems, (and) closes loopholes in our immigration system," said Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., chairman of the Senate immigration subcommittee and by that right the bill's principal author. "We recognize that immigration is not the problem, terrorism is," Kennedy added. "We must identify and isolate potential terrorists, not isolate the United States. Fortress America is not a solution that we would consider." Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., had single-handedly delayed the bill since Dec. 19, most recently because it included a controversial provision that would make it easier for some people living in the country illegally to get legal status. The so-called 245(i) provision was dropped from the legislation and several Byrd amendments were adopted before final passage – ensuring his support for the measure. The bill calls for adding 200 INS inspectors, Customs inspectors and INS investigators a year until 2006 – for a total of 1,000 each. However, the bill does not provide funds for the hiring. That will have to be approved year by year. The bill also would beef up State Department consular operations overseas, which consider visa applications. Critics question whether the government will be able to develop and deploy the various technologies required for the new tamper-resistant visas, entry-exit and foreign student tracking systems. For that reason, the Senate approved an amendment yesterday to push the deadline back a year, to September 2004. Several of the hijackers involved in the Sept. 11 attacks were in the country on student visas. The bill also puts pressure on countries whose nationals are not required to obtain visas to report stolen passports or risk being suspended from the so-called visa-waiver program. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a key architect of the bill, expressed "serious concerns" about the visa-waiver program, which she said allows people from 29 countries to enter the United States without a visa. "When you have 23 million people coming in without visas from 29 different countries, it becomes so easy for passports to be misplaced and for people that are threats to get into this country," Feinstein said. "I think we have to watch it very carefully. . . . I, for one, would not have a problem doing away with the program if we find any more irregularities in it." Feinstein and fellow Democratic California Sen. Barbara Boxer voted for the bill. The bill proved popular with advocates from both sides of the immigration debate, which is rare. Advocates for reducing immigration praised the bill as a good first step while advocates for greater immigration called it restrained and carefully targeted to avoid causing undue problems for legitimate international visitors. "It moves us in the right direction," said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that generally supports tighter immigration practices. The bill takes aim at millions of visitors who remain in the country beyond the period permitted by their visas, he noted. "Visa over-stayers are 40 percent of the illegal immigrants, and they're obviously a substantial part of the security problem regarding immigration," he said. Krikorian cautioned that the bill could divert terrorists from established ports of entry and to the Mexican border, where they could attempt to join the flow of illegal immigrants who elude the Border Patrol. "We might well see Mexico become a conduit for terrorists trying to get in," Krikorian said. "If I were a terrorist and the earlier, easier ways of getting into the U.S. were blocked off, that is something I'd think about." Immigration advocate Angela Kelley also praised the bill. "We think it strikes the right balance between enhancing national security and maintaining our tradition as a nation of immigrants," said Kelley, deputy director of the National Immigration Forum. "It adds layers of security in a way that still permits people to come to this country to build the American dream, which is what immigrants do," she said. "But it does an effective job of stopping the bad guys." Phil Anderson, a homeland security expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said congressional mandates will not be enough to ensure that federal agencies share information. "The problem lies in the culture, in an inherent unwillingness to share information," said Anderson, adding that his criticism applied to all the federal agencies who develop intelligence about terrorist threats. "It's a power issue," said Anderson. "If the source of your power is the ability to manage classified, proprietary information, how willing are you going to be to work with other agencies?" Anderson said the problem can be solved only if the leaders of federal agencies work to change the close-to-the-vest culture that has long impeded cooperative effort.