January 30, 2001

MEMORANDUM

John Conyers, Jr.
Ranking Minority Member

FULL COMMITTEE

Department of Justice Authorization  The Committee will aggressively concentrate on an overall review of the Department of Justice with the engagement by the Subcommittees  with the Department components that are specifically under their jurisdiction.

Budget and Programmatic Oversight  The Committee will coordinate and oversee routine budget and programmatic oversight by each Subcommittee of the departments and agencies under the jurisdiction of the Committee, with particular emphasis on compliance with the Results Act. Also, under review will be issues within the Committee's jurisdiction noted in GAO's High Risk List, GAO's Major Management Challenges and Program Risks, and the relevant agency Inspectors General list of top ten major management problems. Of particular focus will be the Department of Justice's Office of Justice Programs.

SUBCOMMITTEE ON IMMIGRATION AND CLAIMS

INS Management

A. INS Restructuring/Management  The Subcommittee expects to conduct hearings on management problems in the Immigration and Naturalization Service and proposals to restructure the agency to enable it to more effectively carry out its missions.

B. Agenda of Incoming Administration  The Subcommittee expects to conduct hearings on the agenda of the incoming INS commissioner.

C. Progress of Incoming Administration  The Subcommittee expects to conduct two sets of hearings, separated by about a year, on the implementation of the INS Commissioner's agenda.

Legal Immigration Reform

A. Guestworkers  The Subcommittee expects to conduct hearings on the advisability of creating new guestworker programs, both for agricultural employers and the business community more generally.  The hearings will examine the labor needs of American employers, the need for alien labor, and the impact of new guestworker programs on American workers and on the control of illegal immigration.

B. Immigrant "Quality"  The Subcommittee expects to conduct hearings on 1) the impact of low-skilled immigrants on American workers, 2) the workforce needs of American employers in the 21^st century, and 3) various methods to make our legal immigration system more responsive to the workforce needs of American employers in the 21^st century.

Oversight of Legal Immigration Programs

A. Temporary Protected Status  The Subcommittee expects to conduct hearings on the use by the Attorney General of temporary protected status for nationals of certain countries during "emergency" conditions in their countries. In particular, the Subcommittee will examine the extent to which national's covered by a TPS program return to their home country, remain in the U.S. legally, or remain in the U.S. illegally, after the emergency conditions cease to exist.

B. Legal Immigration Family Equity Act  The Subcommittee expects to conduct hearings on the effects of the LIFE Act included in the Commerce, Justice and State Departments appropriations bill for fiscal year 2001, as amended, and more generally on the backlogs for family sponsored preference visas. 

C. Student Visas  The Subcommittee expects to conduct hearings on 1) the use of student visas by foreign nationals from countries designated as sponsors of terrorism, 2) the use of student visas by foreign nationals for the purpose of espionage, 3) the status of the Immigration and Naturalization Service's pilot program to track college students from foreign countries, and 4) the advisability of loosening restrictions on the availability of student visas to attend public high schools.

D. Investor Visa Program  The Subcommittee expects to conduct hearings on recent INS changes to the Investor Visa Program (granting permanent residence to foreign nationals investing a certain amount into U.S. enterprises and creating a certain number of jobs for American workers) and INS policy retroactively denying certain foreign national investor visas for which they initially qualified.

E. Battered Immigrants  The Subcommittee expects to conduct hearings on the implementation of relief from deportation for battered immigrant contained in prior law and expanded in the "Battered Immigrants Women Protection Act of 2000".  The new relief should be monitored to assess the successes in protecting battered women as well as any unintended consequences and fraud.  In addition, hearings may be held on the INS's proposed regulation to expand asylum relief for victims of domestic abuse committed abroad. 

F. Trafficking Victims  The Subcommittee expects to conduct hearings on the implementation of the "Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000", which creates a new "T" nonimmigrant visa for  victims of sex trafficking and slave labor in the United States.  Possible fraud and abuse of the T visa would be examined as well as whether the problems addressed by the Act are greater than expected.

Illegal Immigration

A. Illegal Immigration in Arizona  The Subcommittee expects to conduct hearings on the effects on Arizona border residents and property owners of illegal border crossings along the Arizona border.

B. Relations with Mexico  The Subcommittee expects to conduct hearings on how we may improve cooperation with the Mexican government on immigration issues.

C. Border Control  The Subcommittee expects to conduct hearings on the situation along our southern border,  the success of current border control initiatives such as "Operation Gatekeeper" in San Diego, and the necessity of additional resources. 

D. Interior Enforcement  The Subcommittee expects to conduct hearings on the INS's efforts to find and remove illegal immigrants living and working in the interior of the United States, including 1) the employment eligibility verification pilot program, 2) INS' worksite enforcement strategy, 3) INS's "Quick Response Teams," and 4) the advisability of labor law protections for undocumented workers.

E. Smuggling of Foreign Nationals  The Subcommittee expects to conduct hearings on recent trends in alien smuggling and methods for the detection, apprehension, prosecution and punishment of smugglers.

F. Expedited Exclusion  The Subcommittee expects to conduct hearings on the implementation of the expedited exclusion provisions of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996.

Criminal/Terrorist Aliens

A. Convention Against Torture  The Subcommittee expects to conduct hearings on the implementation of the Convention Against Torture and its impact on the ability of the U.S. to deport terrorist and criminal immigrants.

B. Secret Evidence/Terrorism Courts  The Subcommittee plans to conduct hearings on the use by the Federal government of classified evidence against foreign nationals in deportation and detention proceedings.  A significant number of members believe that the use of such evidence by an immigration judge or Federal court violates basic civil rights when the evidence is not made available to the foreign nationals or her attorney.  Other members believe that the government should not have to choose between deporting an foreign nationals involved with a terrorist group and divulging before open court the names and methods of intelligence operatives (and other sensitive information).  In addition, the Subcommittee plans to examine why the Federal terrorism court has never been used in its four years of statutory existence.

C. Removal of Aliens   The Subcommittee expects to conduct hearings on the implementation of new procedures to remove criminal and illegal immigrant provided by the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 and on the effects of the INS's newly issued guidelines for the use of prosecutorial discretion in the deportation of criminal immigrant.

D.  Detention of Foreign Nationals   The Subcommittee expects to conduct hearings on the Immigration and Naturalization Service's capability to detain criminal and illegal immigrants and to meet the detention requirements of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, and on the condition of INS detention facilities.  In particular, the Subcommittee will look at the INS's interpretation of Section 236(c) of the Immigration and Naturalization Act.

E. INS Institutional Removal Program  The Subcommittee expects to conduct hearings on the IRP.  Under this program, the INS is supposed to locate criminal immigrant still serving their criminal sentences in State or Federal prisons, then initiate removal proceedings (if the person is deportable), and complete the proceedings prior to the person's prison release date so that the foreign national can either be immediately removed from the U.S. or released into society when the sentence is completed.

Fraud Issues

A. INS Forensics Laboratory  The Subcommittee expects to conduct hearings on the INS's one forensics lab for all deportation/removal cases nationwide.  The lab is significantly understaffed and underfunded.  Because document fraud is a ubiquitous problem, thousands of case documents are sent to the lab.  However, the lab is so backlogged that many documents are not examined in time for the next scheduled hearing in a case months later.  Immigration judges usually grant one continuance if forensic results have not yet been received, but results are now so delayed that immigration judges have ceased granting continuances.  As a result, cases go forward in which the trial attorney suspects fraud, and the foreign national may receive relief from deportation.

B. Document Fraud  Section 274C of the Immigration and Nationality Act prohibits document fraud.  The INA also provides for charging an foreign national who is the subject of a final order for violating section 274C with inadmissibility or deportability.  In a class action suit against the INS (Walters v. Reno, 145 F.3d 1032 (9^th Cir. 1998) cert. denied 119 S. Ct. 1140 (1999)), the class members claimed that the INS was violating the Due Process Clause by issuing final orders to foreign nationals violating section 274C.  The Ninth Circuit affirmed the Washington district court's decision, which found that the INS had in fact violated the persons' due process rights. As such, foreign nationals are  now being charged with document fraud as a ground of inadmissibility or deportability. 

C. Visa Processing at INS Service Centers and the Labor Department  The Subcommittee expects to conduct hearings on the extent to which the INS Regional Service Centers and the Labor Department are approving family and employment based visa petitions with little examination or investigation of possible fraud and are not personally interviewing the beneficiaries (i.e., to see if a bona fide marriage exists, if the beneficiary is working for the sponsoring employer, or if the person has the requisite work experience).

D. Voting by Aliens  The Subcommittee expects to conduct hearings on improper voting by foreign nationals in the 2000 elections and the Justice Department's utilization of provisions that were contained in the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 making such voting a criminal and deportable offense. 

Cultural/Societal Issues

A. Immigrant Population Growth  The Subcommittee expects to conduct hearings on the impact immigration has had and will continue to have on U.S. population growth, urban sprawl, economic growth and the environment.

B. Assimilation of Immigrants  The Subcommittee expects to conduct hearings on the extent to which recent immigrants have been assimilating and making important contributions to American society.

C. Affirmative Action and Immigrants   The Subcommittee expects to conduct hearings on the eligibility and use of affirmative action programs involving foreign nationals. 

D. Dual Nationality   The Subcommittee expects to conduct hearings on the policy implications of the widening acceptance worldwide of dual nationality.

Miscellaneous Issues

A. New Affidavit of Support  The Subcommittee expects to conduct hearings on the effects of new affidavit of support required by the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996.  Sponsors of immigrants now must sign a legally binding affidavit promising to provide for the support of the immigrants until they naturalize.

B. Contempt Regulations  The Justice Department has recently issued regulations authorizing immigration judges and the Board of Immigration Appeals with contempt power over the attorneys, representatives, and parties that appear before them.  These courts should be monitored to ensure that this new power is not abused.

C. Due Process Protections for Immigrants  Hearings on due process rights as they apply to immigrants in light of changes made in IIRIRA.

D. NACARA Oversight  Hearings on NACARA and whether it should be revised or extended.

E. Oversight of the status of long time immigrants present in the United States  Hearings on the immigration registry date.