The Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2001
Bill
Summary
November 30, 2001
For Immediate Release
Contact: Stephanie Cutter
(202)
224-2633
The Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2001 will
strengthen the security of our borders, secure our visa entry system, and
enhance our ability to deter potential terrorists.
Improving the resources, training, and technology available to our
border personnel is a critical component of our efforts to improve border
security. This legislation waives the limitation on the hiring of
full-time personnel, giving greater control to decision makers at the
border; increases the number of border personnel; raises the pay of INS
border personnel; and provides customs agents, border patrol, and INS
inspectors with essential training and cross-training. Funds are
authorized to the Department of State to improve the screening of visa
applicants, strengthen coordination of international intelligence
information. Funds are also authorized to enhance technology available to
the INS and Customs Service to improve technology, expand the use of
technology, and facilitate the flow of commerce at ports of entry. To
offset the costs of such improvements, the Attorney General is authorized
to increase land border fees, and the DOS is permitted to raise fees from
the use of machine-readable visas. In addition, the Attorney General is
required to use authorized funds to being installing biometric data
readers and scanners at U.S. ports of entry.
We must also improve coordination and information-sharing by the State
Department, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and law
enforcement and intelligence agencies. Building on the progress made by
the anti-terrorism bill to provide the INS and State Department with
access to FBI information, this legislation directs the President to
devise and implement a comprehensive report and plan to provide the State
Department and the INS with greater access to intelligence and law
enforcement information. This plan will be developed and implemented in
consultation with the appropriate congressional committees, and will
provide information critical to the State Department and the INS in their
efforts to identify and intercept terrorists. The President must also
develop and implement an interoperable electronic data system – with
specific name recognition capabilities – to provide appropriate foreign
service officers and federal agents with immediate access to relevant law
enforcement and intelligence database information. Until these plans are
put in place, U.S. law enforcement agencies and the intelligence community
are required to share relevant information with the DOS and INS.
We must also improve our ability to monitor foreign nationals in the
United States. Consular officers who issue visas will be required to
transmit electronic versions of visa files to the INS so that critical
information is available to immigration inspectors at U.S. ports of entry
before an alien's arrival. This legislation also gives greater direction
to the integrated entry and exit system established by the 1996 law
IIRIRA, including: using a specific technology standard and technologies
that facilitate cross border movement, creating a database for compiling
arrival and departure data, and making all security databases involved in
determining the admissibility of aliens interoperable. Biometric
technology can significantly enhance our ability to monitor foreign
nationals. This legislation requires the Attorney General and the
Secretary of State to begin issuing machine-readable, tamper resistant,
travel documents with biometric identifiers, and to require that countries
participating in the Visa Waiver Program issue passports with those
qualities.
In an effort to improve the ability of our foreign consulates to
identify potential terrorists, this legislation establishes terrorist
lookout committees at each U.S. mission abroad. These lookout committees
will ensure that names of suspected terrorists are included in the
appropriate lookout databases and that those names are transmitted to the
appropriate person in the consulate. Additionally, the legislation
prohibits visas from being issued to an alien from a country designated as
a state-sponsor of terrorism, unless the Secretary of State, after
consultation with the Attorney General and other officials, determines
that the alien poses no safety or security threat to the United States.
The legislation reforms the current Visa Waiver Program by only allowing a
country to be designated as a participant in the program if the Secretary
of State and Attorney General determine that the country transmits reports
of blank passport thefts to the U.S. government in a timely manner. The
legislation also requires that the Attorney General enter stolen passport
information into the interoperable data system quickly.
By enhancing our efforts to screen passengers to the U.S. at their
ports of departure, we can also improve the security of our North American
perimeter. To achieve this goal, a comprehensive study is required to
determine how best to screen travelers to the United States, Canada, and
Mexico. This study must examine the possibility of instituting
preclearance and preinspection procedures. Our screening capacity will
also be enhanced by requiring all commercial flights and vessels coming
into or leaving from the U.S. to provide manifest information about each
passenger, crew member, and other occupants prior to arrival into, or
departure from, the U.S. Lastly, when planes land at our airports,
inspectors are now under excessive time constraints to clear the planes
and ensure the safety of all departing passengers. The legislation removes
the existing 45 minute deadline, and provides inspectors with additional
time to clear and secure aircraft.
The anti-terrorism bill improved the monitoring of foreign students and
exchange visitors, but gaps still exist. This legislation requires that
the student monitoring program collect additional information on the
status of foreign students in the U.S.; it expands the monitoring program
to include flight schools, language training programs, and vocational
schools; and it also improves the reporting requirements placed on the
INS, the State Department and educational institutions. In addition, it
requires the INS, in consultation with the Department of Education, to
periodically review institutions enrolling foreign students and receiving
exchange visitors, to ensure that they adhere to the mandated reporting
and record-keeping requirements. If an institution fails to comply, their
authorization to accept foreign students may be revoked. The legislation
also puts in place a temporary system until this program is implemented.
INS currently has difficulty retaining well-qualified inspectors at our
borders. By giving the same retirement benefits to these individuals as
other law enforcement personnel, this legislation provides an incentive
that will help INS keep trained personnel.
Currently, there is no system in place to locate nonimmigrant aliens in
the United States. The legislation directs the General Accounting Office
to conduct a study to determine the feasibility of requiring every
nonimmigrant alien in the U.S. to provide the INS with current contact
information.
Our efforts to improve border security must include greater
coordination with our allies. Toward that end, the Secretary of State and
INS Commissioner are required to study the possibility of requiring
countries that participate in the visa waiver program to develop an
intergovernmental network of interoperable electronic data systems.
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