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Border Security Provisions Stripped From 9/11 Bill
Congress clears bill based on 9/11 Commission's recommendations without important immigration and border security measures

Talking with Kean

Washington, Dec 7, 2004 - Today, the House debated the conference report on legislation based on the 9/11 Commission Report's recommendations entitled the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004. The bill eventually passed the House and was sent to the President for his signature. However, Congressman Royce was strongly opposed to the bill because certain immigration system and border security improvement measures were removed from the final legislation, even though these provisions were recommended by the 9/11 Commission itself and included in the bill that the House passed in October. Congressman Royce made the following two statements on the floor of the House in opposition to the bill:

First statement:

"I urge my colleagues to oppose this conference report because I strongly believe that all of the 9/11 Commission recommendations should be in it. The commission itself has said that all of its recommendations should be adopted in their entirety to ensure success in deterring terrorism. The law that we passed establishing the 9/11 Commission directed them to investigate all of the failures that led to 9/11, which included significant lapses and loopholes in our immigration and border control system. The commission made recommendations to fix our immigration and border system. We put them in the House bill. It was passed out of this House with 68 percent of this body voting in favor. They have now been stripped out in the conference report.

"Why are we not adopting all of the commission's recommendations to strengthen America's ability to intercept individuals who pose catastrophic threats? How quickly we forget that the 9/11 Commission found that as many as 15 of the 19 hijackers were, in their words, potentially vulnerable to interception by border authorities. So why does this bill not address the 9/11 Commission's recommendation for a secure identification system? The 19 9/11 hijackers had 63 validly issued U.S. driver's licenses between them. What were they using that many for? They were moving around the country undetected and plotting and planning. In fact, as many as eight of them were even registered to vote. They then used those bogus licenses to board U.S. planes.

"Why are we not addressing the commission's recommendations to crack down on asylum fraud? The 9/11 Commission cited the Blind Sheik, Omar Abdel Rahman, who led a plot to bomb New York City landmarks. He used an asylum application to avoid deportation. How about Ramzi Yousef who masterminded the first World Trade Center attack while free after applying for asylum? It is a fact that terrorists have and continue to abuse our asylum laws to stay in this country.

"The removal of these immigration and border security provisions that were recommended by the 9/11 Commission was a grave mistake. They are central to any legislation designed to prevent future terrorist attacks. I urge my colleagues to do the right thing and vote this bill down so we can include all of the 9/11 Commission recommendations in it and not just the politically convenient ones."

Second statement:

"I do not know why we set up a 9/11 Commission if we were not going to take their provisions in their entirety.

"When the 9/11 Commission tells us that border security is national security; when the commission finds that our border system has two systemic weaknesses, a lack of a well-developed counter terrorism measure as a part of border security and, to quote them, 'an immigration system not able to deliver on its basic commitments,' when they look at the case of Mohammed Atta and others and then find and tell us that targeting their travel is at least as powerful a weapon against terrorists as targeting their money, and then lay out a plan for our U.S. border security to be reformed, and we pick up those reforms, put them in the House bill that we pass over to the Senate and now find that those very reforms are stripped out, I do not know how we back away from that argument.

"Border security is national security; how can we acquiesce to those that say no, [who say] you cannot touch border security?

"You know, I do not know with certainty that moving around the organizational boxes of the intelligence community will make things better. It may. But one thing we can be sure of is that the driver's license provisions that have been stripped at the insistence of the other body would have made a difference. Driver's licenses were the 9/11 terrorists' license to kill and to kill massively. We know that.

"They had 63 of these driver's licenses between them, for the 19 of them. And these identification documents gave these hijackers unfettered access to nearly everything they needed to plan and carry out their attacks on Washington, D.C. and on New York City. And the identification cards also allowed them to remain in the country with the appearance of legitimacy long after their visas had expired and their presence in the United States became illegal.

"Sixty-eight percent of this body voted for these reforms and 87 percent of the American people support them. They should be in the bill."