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Intelligence Bill Agreement Strikes Provisions that
Harm
Refugees
House and Senate Ready to Act on 9/11 Commission Recommendations
On Monday, December 6, House and Senate negotiators reached final agreement
on the “Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004”.
This legislation will enact most of the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission.
The House-Senate compromise struck a number of misguided provisions from the
House-passed version that would have harmed refugees and resulted in sending
people back to face torture. These provisions had not been recommended by the
9/11 Commission. The congressional leadership of both parties and the White House
opposed efforts to include the anti-refugee provisions in the final legislation.
“These provisions would have put the lives of refugees at real risk,” said
Cory Smith, Legislative Counsel for Human Rights First. “The fact that
they were dropped is a victory for America’s commitment to protecting the
persecuted.”
Among the bipartisan group of Members of Congress who played a key role in opposing
the anti-refugee provisions were Senators Susan Collins (R-ME), Joe Lieberman
(D-CT), Richard Durbin (D-IL), and Sam Brownback (R-KS), and Representatives
Jane Harman (D-CA), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), and Chris Smith (R-NJ). “This
dedicated and determined group of Congressional leaders, joined by several of
their colleagues, understand that victims of persecution and torture are our
ideological allies in the struggle against terrorism. They deserve tremendous
credit for recognizing that provisions targeting refugees have no place in a
bill to enhance our security,” Smith added.
Lawmakers who pressed to include the draconian asylum provisions have vowed to
resurrect them next year. “We remain very concerned that certain House
Members will continue their efforts next year to advance provisions that target
refugees and torture survivors,” Smith noted. “We intend to keep
a close eye on that beginning in January, and will again be ready to mobilize
friends on Capitol Hill and others concerned about refugees to fight any new
attempts to pass such legislation.”
The final agreement does include a requirement that the General Accounting Office
(GAO), Congress’ investigative arm, conduct a study and report, “to
evaluate the extent to which weaknesses in the United States asylum system and
withholding of removal system have been or could be exploited by aliens connected
to, charged in connection with, or tied to terrorist activity.”
Background
On October 8, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 10, the “9/11 Recommendations
Implementation Act”, which included harmful anti-refugee provisions that
were not recommended by the 9/11 Commission. The Senate version of the bill did
not include these harmful provisions. Later that month the Senate and House met
in a conference to try to reconcile their different versions of the legislation.
On November 20, House and Senate conferees first reached a compromise agreement,
but later the same day the deal fell apart when key House Republicans would not
agree to the deal – despite its support from the White House and House
Speaker, among others. While disagreement over the provisions of the bill concerning
the structure of the intelligence community played a central role in the failure
to reach an agreement, the insistence of some Members – led by House Judiciary
Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) -- on including several anti-refugee
provisions also was an important factor in the breakdown.
Leaders from both parties resisted efforts to include these provisions, which
would have allowed non-citizens – including those who are likely to face
torture – to be deported without an immigration court hearing; made it
much more difficult for genuine refugees to prove their asylum cases; and deprived
victims of torture and other persecution of meaningful judicial review. Congressional
leaders then took the unusual step of returning to Washington on December 6 to
try one final time to enact the 9/11 legislation – an effort that proved
successful after agreement on the core intelligence reform issues and decision
to drop the objectionable anti-refugee provisions.
For more information on this legislation, the specific anti-refugee provisions
included in the original House bill, and the bipartisan opposition to them:
http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/asylum/asylum_10.html
More on Asylum
http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/asylum/asylum.htm
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