Congress Passes the Homeland Security Bill Ensuring Major Changes in Immigration

On November 25, 2002 President Bush signed the Homeland Security Bill into law, and with it, authorized the largest federal reorganization since the creation of the Defense Department in 1947. President Bush nominated Tom Ridge, his current homeland security advisor, to head up the department and selected current Navy Secretary Gordon England to be Ridge’s deputy. Asa Hutchinson, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, was tapped by the President to be the agency’s undersecretary of border and transportation security

Following defeat of the amendment introduced by Senator Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) to strip the bill of certain special interest provisions, the Homeland Security Bill passed the Senate in a 90 - 9 vote on November 19, 2002. Thus, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), an agency that has governed the U.S. immigration laws since 1891, was extinguished. The 484-page Homeland Security Bill moves twenty two agencies and 170,000 employees into a new Department of Homeland Security, the most extensive reorganization of federal bureaucracy since 1947. In a reorganization that may take months if not years to finish, the new Department will include the Coast Guard, Customs Service, Immigration and Naturalization Service, Border Patrol, Secret Service, Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the newly created Transportation Security Administration. The FBI and CIA will remain separate. Under the new Department two bureaus will be responsible for immigration matters, the Directorate of Border and Transportation Security, and the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services. The Directorate of Border and Transportation Security will be responsible for securing the borders of the United States; carrying out the enforcement functions of immigration laws; establishing and administering rules governing the granting of visas or other forms of authorization to enter the U.S., including parole; establishing national immigration enforcement policies and priorities; administering the customs laws; and conducting the inspection and related administrative functions of the Department of Agriculture transferred to the Secretary of Homeland Security. The Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services will be responsible for adjudicating immigrant visa petitions, naturalization petitions, asylum and refugee applications, all adjudications currently performed at service centers, and all other adjudications performed by the Immigration and Naturalization Service immediately before the effective date of the bill. The Homeland Security bill authorizes the Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) of the Department of Health and Human Services to take over all of the functions of immigrations laws relating to unaccompanied alien children. The bill also establishes in the Department of Justice, the Executive Office for Immigration Review which will govern cases in the Immigration Court system; mandates various analyses, studies and reports to be conducted on a regular basis; and directs each House of Congress to review the committee structure.

The bill’s changes are scheduled to become effective 60 days after President Bush signs the legislation. Lawmakers and White House officials have warned that consolidation of the agencies into the new Department of Homeland Security will likely take as long as one year. It is unclear as yet how the changes will impact the usual processing of immigration matters. Some practitioners are concerned that the Homeland Security bill now puts immigration services in a bureau that lacks its own under secretary, doesn't provide enough coordination between law enforcement and immigration processing, and does not protect the independence of immigration courts. Additionally, many are concerned about increasing delays. As the implementation of this new Department unfolds, Greenberg Traurig will continue to monitor the impact, if any, on immigration processing.

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