Senators Feinstein and Kyl Introduce Bill to Address Problems
in U.S. Visa System, Increase Ability to Track Foreign Nationals
November 2, 2001

Washington, DC - Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and John Kyl (R-Ariz.) introduced legislation last night to help prevent terrorists from entering the United States through loopholes in our immigration and visa system.

Cosponsors of the Visa Entry Reform Act of 2001 include Senators Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.) Kit Bond (R-Miss.), Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine).

"The tragic attack on September 11^th showed how easy it was for terrorists bent on destruction to enter our country without detection and kill thousands of people," Senator Feinstein said. "Our nation's borders have become a sieve. This bill will strengthen our counter-terrorism efforts by connecting law enforcement together with a centralized 'lookout' database, upgrade technologies used to prevent fraud and illegal entry, and impose new restrictions on student visas to prevent misuse of the program by those who would do this nation harm."

All 19 of the terrorist hijackers were foreign nationals who should not have been in the United States but were able to infiltrate our country because of loopholes in the immigration system.

In the past, our nation has been relatively lax about enforcing our immigration policies," Senator Feinstein said. "We can no longer afford to operate in this way. We recognize America's openness to newcomers contributes to our strength as a nation. But in these unprecedented times, we have seen terrorists take advantage of that openness, and we must now restore balance to our immigration policy by adding some prudent steps to ensure Americans will be safe at home."

As chair and ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee's panel on Technology, Terrorism and Government Information, Senators Feinstein and Kyl recently held a hearing which demonstrated that changes need to be made in U.S. law to strengthen our borders.

The Senators were told by the INS that in the last fiscal year, 23 million people arrived in the U.S. from 29 different countries under the so-called "visa waiver program" with no visas and little scrutiny. More than 7 million tourists, business visitors, foreign students, and temporary workers arrived last year as non-immigrants, yet the INS does not have a reliable tracking system to determine how many of these visitors left the country after their visas expired.

Among the 7.1 million non-immigrants, 500,000 foreign nationals entered on foreign student visas alone. The foreign student visa system is one of the most under-regulated visa categories, subject to bribes and other problems that leave it wide open to abuse by terrorists and other criminals. In fact, in the early 1990s, five officials at four California colleges were convicted of taking bribes, providing counterfeit education documents and fraudulently applying for more than 100 foreign student visas.

Each year, there are 300 million border crossings in the United States. For the most part, these individuals are legitimate visitors to the nation, but the country lacks the ability to track all these visitors.

Mohamed Atta, the suspected ringleader of the attack, was admitted back into the country through the Miami airport on January 10, even though his visa had reportedly expired. In fact, Atta traveled freely to and from the United States during the past two years. Other hijackers also traveled with ease throughout the country. Suspected hijacker Ahmed Alghamdi remained at large in the United States after his student visa had expired. Another hijacker, Hani Hanjour, was here on a student visa that the INS still cannot determine was valid as of September 11.

"I welcome President Bush's call this week to reform our immigration and visa system," Senator Feinstein said. "This bill introduced today will help implement the President's goals and strengthen our nation's counter-terrorism efforts by closing loopholes in our immigration laws and giving federal agencies the direction and resources they need to do their jobs."

"These changes must be put in place rapidly as it is important that we work together to reform our immigration system to prevent the entry of those intent on inflicting terror and destruction in our society," Senator Feinstein said. "The problems we face are monumental as our government is understaffed and relies on outdated equipment and paper documents to screen foreign nationals as they try to enter the United States."

The Feinstein-Kyl legislation would:

• Create a new centralized "lookout" database. The database would provide the INS and federal law enforcement all the information they need to monitor, track, and alert appropriate authorities about visitors to the U.S. who might be capable of doing harm.
  
  
• Develop a new biometric "SmartVisa" card. Technology is available to put a person's biometric information, such as fingerprints, retinal scans, or face recognition on identification cards. INS and the State Department would be required within one year to ensure that foreign nationals use these tamper proof visa cards to enter and exit the United States.

• Reform the visa waiver program. The 29 countries from which visitors can enter the U.S. without a visa would be required to develop tamper-resistant, machine-readable passports and, within one year, provide biometric data on those passports that conforms to U.S. standards.
  
  
• Establish new screening procedures for entering foreign nationals. ll airlines, cruise lines, and cross border bus lines would have to submit passenger manifests to the central database prior to departure. Additionally, all non-U.S. citizens would submit fingerprints and other biometric data to the State Department when applying for a visa that would be sent to a centralized database.
  
  
• Implement new toughened document requirements. Federal identification documents such as pilots' licenses, visas, immigration work authorization cards, and others would have to be fraud and tamper resistant, contain biometric data, and, if applicable, include the visa's expiration date.
  
  
• Reform the student visa program. The Foreign Student Visa Program is a source of serious abuse, with widespread reports of fraud and bribery. Enforcement is often non-existent.
  
  
• Prohibit persons from obtaining student visas if they come from terrorist supporting states. However, the Secretary of State could waive the ban if the student passes an extensive background check and the Secretary certifies that the student would not pose a threat to national security. In the last 10 years, more than 16,000 students have come from such terrorist supporting states as Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Libya, Syria, North Korea and Cuba.
  
  
• Require the INS to conduct a background check before the State Department can issue a student visa to foreign nationals.
  
  
• Require all educational institutions to immediately notify the INS when a foreign student violates the term of his or her visa by failing to show up for class. Once notified, the INS must take appropriate action.
  
  
• Increase federal staffing to handle additional border security and visa responsibilities. Building on the counterterrorism bill recently approved by Congress, the Feinstein-Kyl bill would: add 1,000 new INS inspectors at the ports of entry by 2006; add 1,000 new U.S. Customs by 2006; and authorize an increase in State Department personnel to sufficiently staff U.S. consular offices overseas.
  

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