Immigration-reform calls block intelligence overhaul

WASHINGTON -- Southern California lawmakers who helped kill a post-Sept. 11 bill because it was too soft on illegal immigration vowed this week to smother any future intelligence overhaul that fails to control the flow of undocumented aliens. Prohibiting the use of matricula consular cards, permitting on-the-spot deportations of illegal immigrants and adopting national standards for driver's licenses top the list of measures that local lawmakers insist must be included in any intelligence bill next year.

"These are not just immigration measures. They're national security measures," said Rep. Gary Miller, R-Brea. "You cannot have national security with open borders. It's impossible."

Miller was among the lawmakers who orchestrated a Republican conference Saturday at which he denounced as "ridiculous" a Senate version that deleted several border reforms.

Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Thousand Oaks, called the provisions "vital to our national security, " and said he would vote for intelligence reform only if it contained the more controversial measures.

Rep. David Dreier, R-Glendora, who took a beating from conservatives over immigration during his re-election campaign and was a member of the intelligence bill negotiating team, believes GOP leaders did the right thing by shelving the legislation.

"Immigration reform needs to be a part of this bill," Dreier spokeswoman Jo Maney said.

Dreier voted in favor of an earlier House version that included strict immigration measures. Maney declined to detail his position on specific provisions such as a driver's license database and restrictions on asylum seekers.

"He thinks the bill could have been better than what was agreed to on Saturday," Maney said. "He's pleased we're still working on it."

The intelligence overhaul stemmed from recommendations by the 9-11 commission on national security failures that led to the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

The Senate voted 96-2 in favor of bipartisan legislation that essentially would have made the commission's recommendations law.

The House passed a different version by a vote of 282-134, supported mostly by Republicans, that made it easier to deport illegal immigrants even back to countries known to torture suspects; put stricter restrictions on illegal aliens' ability to obtain driver's licenses; and expanded judicial review in asylum cases.

Democrats, the 9-11 commission and 9-11 families opposed the House version, saying the immigration reforms went too far.

Negotiations collapsed Saturday when the Senate refused to accept those measures, and House leaders, with the support of Los Angeles area Republicans, held up the bill.

Rep. Jane Harman, D-El Segundo, the leading Democrat on the Select Committee on Intelligence and also a member of the negotiating team, pilloried GOP leadership.

"If there is another major terrorist attack on our soil -- and sadly, there likely will be one -- we will have only ourselves to blame. Congress had the chance to protect America and Congress failed."

Republicans, meanwhile, insisted that Congress should not blindly follow the 9-11 panel, which conducted 20 months of investigations and hearings.

"The 9-11 commission does not create perfection. It's a recommendation," Miller said.

Angela Kelley, deputy director of the National Immigration Forum, an immigration advocacy group in Washington, D.C., called the immigration reforms part of an "extremist, restrictionist agenda."

"There is a legitimate role for immigration policy in the security debate," Kelly said. But, she argued that fast-track deportations and other measures are "just to keep immigrants out."

Whether intelligence reform will be taken up again this year or next remains to be seen. Either way, some Southern California GOP lawmakers believe that with the Bush administration renewing its push for a guest-worker immigration plan, holding the line on illegal immigration is increasingly important.

"If we sat back idly, that would have sent a clear signal that amnesty is OK," Gallegly said. "For us to roll on the immigration issue at this particular time would just set the stage for amnesty."

"Democrats, the 9-11 commission and 9-11 families opposed the House version, saying the immigration reforms went too far. "

This statement is so misleading. There are two 9/ll family groups, one ultra liberal as mentioned above and the one below, who fully supports the House bill.

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My next guest says that immigration reforms are a critical part of intelligence reform. Peter Gadiel is the president of 9/11 Families for a Secure America. His son, James, was killed in the World Trade Center on September 11th. Peter Gadiel believes that if our national immigration laws had been fully enforced before September 11th, his son and many others would still be alive today. Good to have you with us.

PETER GADIEL, 9/11 FAMILIES FOR A SECURE AMERICA: Thank you for having me.

DOBBS: The statement, Congressman Sensenbrenner pointing out, 19 hijackers held 63 valid driver's licenses. What is your reaction when you hear that Jim Sensenbrenner was the primary person to stand up and say, as a matter of first line of defense, we've got to be able to stop giving valid driver's licenses to people who are here illegally.

GADIEL: People like Senator Collins and Lieberman and Roberts and Congressman Harman have been piling on him and criticizing him. But for the people of my group, 9/11 Families for a Secure America, he's a hero. He's able to take this absurd, false, phony criticism and fight back and make the point that driver's licenses are first and last line of defense.

DOBBS: It is a remarkable period. Do you understand -- you've been talking with these congressmen, these senators. I have not been able to get from any one of them who is opposed to banning these driver's licenses a solid, intelligent national security answer as to why they would be against it.

GADIEL: Well, if you go into Senator Lieberman's office, you'll hear the issue is complex. It's not complex. And for our members, the message we want to get across to the people of Connecticut, the people of California, Jane Harman's district and others, is that if you are in favor of the Collins/Lieberman/McCain bill, the Senate bill, then you are in favor of giving licenses to terrorists, it's that simple. Because if you support the Senate bill, then what you want to give is make licenses available to illegal aliens, an illegal alien is a person who's never been identified properly. And so any illegal alien can be a terrorist. We don't know who they are.

DOBBS: And Congressman Sensenbrenner also pointed out that the president agreed, as a matter of horse trading on this issue, to toughen the laws that would allow authorities to detain and deport terrorists.

GADIEL: Right.

DOBBS: And that was not agreed to by the Senate conferees.

GADIEL: The Senate conferees would not budge an inch from their original position. They're saying that the House didn't compromise. But, in fact, the House compromised a great deal to the point where, at the end, the only thing in terms of border security or driver's license reform was the driver's license provision. All the other border security measures had been bargained away by the House because of the refusal of the Senate, Collins, Lieberman, McCain, the rest of the crowd, Rockefeller, to compromise even an inch. And there's no interpretation available for their position other than that they want to keep the borders open because they want cheap labor in this country, and the people provide massive campaign contributions are continuing to fund their campaigns.

DOBBS: You said it that straightforward.

GADIEL: Straightforward. Senator Roberts, over one-third of $1 million of campaign dollars, from agribusiness alone in the last few years. Agribusiness, a major user of cheap, illegal labor. Senator Roberts, you don't want closed borders? We do. We consider our children's lives and the future of this country much more important than your contributions from agribusiness.

DOBBS: Congressman Duncan Hunter, Chairman of the House Armed Forces Committee, saying this legislation should not pass because it takes away too much power from the Department of Defense intelligence. Do you agree with him on that?

GADIEL: I can't comment on the intelligence side. I mean, I've been working on border security and such things. And for me to say anything about the intelligence dispute would be talking through my hat.

DOBBS: Your position, the position of your group, the 9/11 Families for a Secure America, is that driver's licenses, we have to stop issuing them to illegal aliens, and that we have to have border security.

GADIEL: Border security. More people on the border, more internal enforcement, ban the use of matricular cards.

DOBBS: It sounds so straightforward, so simple, so primary, that if one cannot defend their borders, what defense is there?

GADIEL: Well, talk to Senator Rockefeller, he'll tell you the issue is complex. I'm sorry. I mean, General Franks said during the Iraq war that any nation that wants to can control its borders. The people in Congress do not want to control our borders. That's where the problem lies.

DOBBS: What should people who agree with you do?

GADIEL: Well, Election Day has passed. One of the worst members of the entire congress on this issue is senator McCain. He authored a provision in the Senate bill, that essentially invites states to go on giving licenses to terrorists, and he's just been elected by 70 percent of the vote. On the other hand, those very same people supported the PAN initiative which was a ...

DOBBS: Proposition 200.

GADIEL: Proposition 200, right. You know, vote them out of office. Get rid of Senator Rockefeller, get rid of Senator Lieberman. Vote for people who will support the borders and not just talk right about the issue, and then vote wrong, like Senator Lieberman. They always talk about how they want to control the borders, but when it comes to a vote, they won't do it.
www.cnn.com/lou

Politicians, and this administration, need to have it made very clear to them that when this attack comes, the buck is going to stop with them.

We know the reason for lax borders is their insane dream of one united western hemisphere globalist agenda. We also know their mindset doesn't mind breaking a few eggs, the lives of American citizens, as long as their larger agenda is attained. What fool would believe their lame statement, "everying possible is being done to protect you", when the most major thing that should be done, goes deliberaltely ignored.

I'm very proud of the politicans that are standing firm and actually representing American citizens, and very ashamed of those that extend the definition of American citizen, and deserving of representation, to everyone in on the planet, who are lucky enough to get here or who are not yet here.

Some idiot politicians especially believe that any third world gutter snipe, or terrorist has an American inside that is just waiting to get out.

The truth is it is a brutal world, and these day dreamers need to rouse themselves from their stupors and realize it then do the proper things to protect those that deserve it, their fellow countrymen.

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