|
Gekas seeks curbs to legal immigrants
The
Washington Times
June 27, 2002
By Stephen Dinan
A
key House Republican introduced legislation yesterday to
temporarily cut legal immigration to the United States by
about 20 percent as part of a broad reform of immigration
laws.
Rep. George W. Gekas, Pennsylvania Republican, the
chairman of the immigration subcommittee of the House
Judiciary Committee, said government agencies need time to
restructure and to catch up with the current backlog of
applications.
"We believe we must take a bold step, and for the time
being — I stress that — reduce the number of legal
immigrants," Mr. Gekas said.
The bill eliminates several categories of persons
eligible for green cards based on their relationship to a U.S.
citizen or green-card holder.
It also authorizes the hiring of more border guards and
thousands of Immigration and Naturalization Service inspectors
to go after illegal immigrants and eliminates some of the
methods illegal immigrants use to avoid enforcement of
deportation orders.
Mr. Gekas said immigration is no longer just a
law-and-order issue, it's now a matter of national security.
"Members of Congress and the public at large recognize
that our open society we're so proud of is, because it is so
open, endangering itself," Mr. Gekas said.
As chairman of the immigration subcommittee, Mr. Gekas
has a platform for starting the public debate on reform,
though how far the bill can go this year is uncertain.
To go past Mr. Gekas' committee it would have to gain
the approval of Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James
Sensenbrenner, Wisconsin Republican, whose spokesman yesterday
said he was still reviewing it.
Amid numerous pending proposals to restructure the INS
and agencies that handle domestic security and to crack down
on illegal immigrants, Mr. Gekas' proposal is the only one to
propose a broad reduction in legal immigration.
The bill
would eliminate the entire diversity visa program, which
offers 55,000 slots a year through a lottery, as well as
remove adult siblings and adult children of U.S. citizens, and
adult unmarried children of legal permanent residents, from
the list of those eligible for green cards. Mr. Gekas' target
is to reduce immigration by about 20 percent.
Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee from Texas, the top Democrat on
the immigration subcommittee, called the bill "a variety of
controversial provisions that really will have a difficult
time getting through the House, much less the Senate."
Groups that support stricter immigration limits were
pleased with the measure, but realistic about its chances.
The bill would also:
- Allow officials to require those coming on
non-immigrant visas to post a bond. If they violate the
terms of their visas, a bondsman would be responsible for
bringing them in.
- Require schools that allow student visas to
participate in the INS' student-tracking system, due out by
next year, or else lose the ability to host foreign
students, and would require the INS to meet its target for
deployment or have the entire student-visa program shut
down.
- Try to cut down on fraud by requiring specific
standards for documents like Social Security
cards.
- Require voter lists to be checked against Social
Security databases and INS records to make sure registered
voters are citizens.
- Allow the nation to continue to accept refugees, but
requires congressional approval if the United States is on
track to take in more refugees than the rest of the world
combined the previous year.
Copyright © 2002 News World Communications, Inc. All
rights reserved. | 
