Date: 2004-12-07
Speaker: GARY G. MILLER (republican)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. I rise in strong opposition to the 9/11 Recommendation Act. I want to commend the gentleman from California for his efforts in the area of oversight that he had. I think he did an expellent job. and this bill was improved by his efforts. However. the gentleman from Wisconsins issues that he dealt with were removed from this bill. and the gentleman from Wisconsin looked at this House issiie and said. how did 9/ 11 occur? How did the perpetrators attack this country. and what can we do in this bill to make sure that does not happen again? That language was removed. and when we talk to the people back home. these are commonsense issues. The gentleman from California injected language that said we are going to expedite construction of the gap of the 14mile barrier in between San Diego and the border of the United States. That language was removed. and if we look at that 3mile gap. it looks like a herd of cattle had stampeded through there every day. We cannot tell who came into this country illegally. but that was removed. The other one struck is any requirement for proof of lawful presence in the United States for a drivers license. E 1845 The 9/11 perpetrators came to this country. they obtained drivers licenses through a legal fashion in 10 States that make them available. and this bill would have said that that will never happen again. The only vay 9/11 happened and occurred is because these terrorists were able to obtain drivers licenses to come and go freely in this country and to board planes as they chose. Nothing in this bill will stop that from happening. The other issue that was struck is license expiration tied to a visa expiration. It makes perfect sense that if you have a visa in this country. and you get a license while you are here. that your license should expire when your visa expires. The same thing happened with the 9/11 perpetrators." Their visas expired. but their licenses did not. and they were thereby allowed to stay in this country. They also struck expedited removal of illegal aliens. You can implement frivolous lawsuits and stay in this country almost as long as you want. even if you are here illegally. This bill originally would have eliminated that option. It struck the restriction for a terrorist claiming asylum. It does not take a brain surgeon to realize if you are a known terrorist. trained in an al Qaeda camp and here in this country. we cannot deport you. You can remain. The language to make sure that did not happen was. again. in this bill and was removed from this bill. It struck limiting judicial review of orders of deportation. That is common sense and should have been in. Now. I will try to go through these quickly. It struck complete national drivers license standards. You should be here in this country legal as a citizen or have a legal right to be here to get a drivers license. it also struck an interstate drivers license database. That way you could not get multiple drivers licenses throughout multiple States like the terrorists did. There were very good commonsense laws in this that would have become law. and they basically were struck. The one that really does not make any sense struck "terrorists traveling information sharing." You have a terrorist that travels around. and we cannot even share that information by law. That is wrong. The things that were removed from this bill warrant a "no" vote on this bill. and I strongly encourage a "no" vote. I rise today in strong opposition to the intelligence reform conference report. There is no question that everyone in Congress wants to protect the country from another terrorist attack. That is why I am so appalled that this conference report excludes several House provisions strengthening immigration law. We cannot have real intelligence reform without addressing flaws in our immigration system. I strongly believe that failing to act on important immigration reforms is a grave mistake. since these provisions are central to any legislation designed to prevent future terrorist attacks. By passing this conference report. Congress is looking the other way while potential terrorists are allowed to exploit flaws in U.S. immigration policy. As we work to implement the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. how can we ignore the Commissions call for strengthened identification standards in this country? The Commission found that it was our immigration laws. not those laws aimed at protecting against terrorism. that shaped the. terrorists ability to carry out their plot on 9/11. In fact. the Commission found that travel documents were as important to the terrorists as were their weapons. The simple fact is that if the 9/11 terrorists had not been able to enter the United States and operate freelyto obtain drivers licenses. open bank accounts. rent homes and cars. and board airplanesthey would not have been able to commit mass murder on that fateful day. As long as fraudulent identity documents remain readily available. terrorists will be able to use legal loopholes to enter and remain at large in the United States. It is truly beyond reason that this final conference report would remove Housepassed provisions to secure drivers licenses. This is in direct contradiction to the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. which urged Congress to set federal standards for stateissued licenses. Have we already forgotten that the 19 hijackers on 9/11 had 63 drivers licenses among them and that most of these were obtained through fraudulent means? One of the 9/11 hijackers was stopped for a traffic violation a mere two days before the terrorist attacks. Unfortunately. the officer was unable to detect that the terrorists visa had expired because his drivers license was still valid. The House bill included a requirement that drivers license expiration dates coincide with visa expiration dates so that law enforcement officers could have the information they need to keep us secure. The conference report deleted this important House provision. In addition. while current law *allows for the denial of admission to the U.S. on terrorismrelated grounds. terrorism cannot be used as a basis of deportability from the country. This means that some terrorists and their supporters can be kept out of the United States. but as soon as they set foot on our shores. we cannot deport them. hindering our ability to protect America from terrorists who have infiltrated our country. The House bill makes aliens deportable for terrorismrelated offenses just as they would be denied admission to the country in the first place. The conference report excludes this critical provision. leaving a gaping hole in our national security. The security of our Nation must be our top priority. Great intelligence is nothing without a strong national security. The bottom line is that this bill fails to prevent those who may be harmful to the security of our Nation from operating freely and undetected in the United States. If the war on terrorism is to be ultimately successful. it is more importantthan ever that we take the necessary steps to strengthen security at our borders and provide law enforcement agencies the tools they need to identify those individuals who enter or remain in the United States illegally. This bill is woefully inadequate because it fails to make immigration reforms that are absolutely fundamental to ensuring the security of our Nation. By passing this conference report without immigration reform. we are sending a message to the American people that we still have not learned from the tragedy of 9/11 that political correctness must never take the place of national security. Hl1lO