WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks have sparked discussion in Congress over how to better evaluate the risk visitors could pose to the United States before they arrive, and track or apprehend potential abusers of the visa process.
Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., is drafting a bill designed to shore up apparent weaknesses in the visa process that allowed some of the terrorists suspected of carrying out the Sept. 11 attacks to abuse the visa program to carry out their plans.
That legislation will create a 30-day waiting period for the government to do background checks, create "tamper proof" visas and establish a new Immigration and Naturalization Service office to hunt down violators who overstay their visa. It would also require the United States to construct a fully automated system to track entries into and exits from the country.
"Right now we have no ability to identify, locate or remove foreigners who deliberately remain in this country long after their tourist or student visas expire," Bond said. "That is intolerable."
California Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein is also drafting a separate bill to boost funding for the INS to track student visas and requires educational institutions to track the status of student visas. That bill would also delay all new student visas for 6 months while the INS gets the new program up to speed, according to Feinstein's spokesman Jim Hock.
Even before the bills are introduced, they are ringing alarm bells in the business community concerned about how decreased travel could further stall an already flagging economy.
Domestic travel takes in over $580 billion every year, according to the International Travel Association. In 1999 alone, nearly 50 million foreigners visited the United States and spent over $74 billion once they were here, according to ITA.
"Yes, we need security, but we also need our economy up and running," said Theresa Brown, manager of labor and immigration policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "There is a lot of stuff being bandied about right now," Brown said about Congress. "We would just like to encourage people to exercise a modicum of caution."
In addition to the raw economic power of the travel industry, the potential to stagnate cross-border trade and travel while the United States establishes an automated entry and exit system could suck vital funds from the economy of border towns and states.
"That daily flow of traffic is huge," Brown said. "It's very important to those local economies."
Some congressional players in the new immigration debate said the events of Sept. 11 compel lawmakers to take a close look at the visa system, despite the economic risks. "There is a cost to Sen. Bond's proposal," said Bond's spokesman, Ernest Blazar. "But there is also a cost of not doing it."
The new proposals represent a radical departure from a heated debate in Congress that peaked with the Sept. 5 visit to the United States by Mexican President Vicente Fox. At the time, Congress and the Bush administration were considering relatively aggressive plans to relax immigration policy, and eventually allow millions of illegal immigrants to possibly become citizens.
But the focus of the immigration debate, like so many other things in Congress, has changed since Sept. 11.
"The clock has been reset across the board," Blazar said.
