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“WITHDRAW COSPONSORSHIP OF H.R. 2528” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E2287 on Nov. 5, 1999.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
WITHDRAW COSPONSORSHIP OF H.R. 2528
______
HON. XAVIER BECERRA
of california
in the house of representatives
Thursday, November 4, 1999
Mr. BECERRA. Mr. Speaker, today I withdraw my cosponsorship of H.R. 2528. I was an original cosponsor of H.R. 2528, the Immigration Reorganization and Improvement Act of 1999, because I support any effort to jump-start--or better put, restart--the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). Chairman Harold Rogers, Chairman Lamar Smith and Representative Silvestre Reyes have worked diligently to fashion a restructuring bill and are doing what they believed best moves us toward that end. I had concerns about the bill when I first signed on. But I felt it was important to support efforts to restructure the INS. I had hoped H.R. 2528 would move in a direction addressing my concerns. However, at this stage I find that the current status of the bill falls short of meeting the elements necessary to make it a meaningful reform that will place the INS on solid footing to effectively address its obligations.
History has shown that the INS does not receive the resources necessary to carry out its duties in the area of services and adjudication. This is why the backlog of pending naturalization applications grew to approximately 2.0 million and currently stands at approximately 1.4 million. Far too many of those backlogged applicants waited or have been waiting over 2 years for their cases to be adjudicated. The backlog and delay in other adjudication areas--
adjustments of status and the green card replacement program, for instance--are as bad if not worse than for naturalization. As such, my primary concern pertains to the financing mechanisms within the INS for the services and adjudication functions of the agency. Current law and its implementation fail to meet this challenge. And H.R. 2528 falls far short as well. So long as we continue to require fees collected from immigrants for a particular service to pay for non-fee activities, we will always run into budgetary problems and services will suffer. H.R. 2528 authorizes no funds whatsoever for backlog reduction or asylum and refugee processing. This additional strain on already stretched resources, with no additional funding, will only exacerbate the backlogs as well as undermine the United States' ability to meet the protection needs of refugees and asylum seekers.
I am also seriously concerned that H.R. 2528 does not go the necessary mile to ensure that these newly independent agencies of the Department of Justice's immigration until function properly under the oversight and direction of a principal executive. While autonomy for the enforcement and service agencies will allow them to perfect and specialize in their areas of responsibility, too much distance between them could foil the ability of the Department of Justice to direct, coordinate and integrate the overlap in enforcement and service functions. The latest version of H.R. 2528 improves upon the original bill by adding an Assistant Attorney General as that principal in charge. However, it maintains three separate legal and policy offices which will lead to multiple interpretations of immigration, refugee and asylum law. This structure will bear three bureaucracies instead of one and cultivate confusion among the three arms of the agency.
I am committed to continuing to work with the authors of H.R. 2528 along with the Immigration Subcommittee members and the Clinton administration to strengthen the structure of the INS so that it can finally, rightfully handle all duties under its charge. The people of America who must turn to the INS for services--and who happen to pay the taxes and fees to fund this and all other government operations--
deserve no less.
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