The Migration Policy Institute

Monday, September 27, 2004

Program Moderator Doris Meissner, former Commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), introduced C. Stewart Verdery, Jr. as the latest speaker in MPI’s series, Conversations with Senior Government Officials. Mr. Verdery is the first Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary for Border and Transportation Security (BTS) Policy and Planning, directing the BTS Office of Policy and Planning, and is former General Counsel to United States Senate Assistant Republican Leader Don Nickles.

Ms. Meissner recalled that many members of the immigration policy community were concerned about how the enforcement and service functions would operate once they were separated into distinct units after the breakup of the INS.  Because Mr. Verdery is primarily responsible for managing the connectedness between enforcement and service, Ms. Meissner thanked him for giving the audience an opportunity to learn how the immigration functions of DHS are working on a day-to-day basis. 

Keynote Remarks

Mr. Verdery’s division works with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) in the Department of Homeland Security.  Both agencies came in part from the former INS, and were created to separate the enforcement function of immigration from the services function.  Mr. Verdery believes his mandate at the Policy and Planning Office is to analyze cargo control and international travel, and to design policy that enables the government to uncover ‘needles in a haystack’: terrorists or terrorist-related material.  It takes luck, but also requires hard work.  He believes that some mistakes have been made in the developmental process, but overall DHS has experienced success.

The BTS Directorate, headed by Undersecretary Asa Hutchinson, is not in the same chain of command as the services-based U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), headed by Director Eduardo Aguirre.  Both report to Deputy Secretary of DHS Admiral James Loy.  However, Mr. Verdery believes that there is a good relationship between the agencies, reaching agreement when agreement is needed.  Secretary Tom Ridge has final authority over decisions in matters where interagency discussions are necessary.

Mr. Verdery considers immigration to be a topic that has made immense progress since the September 11 attack.  However, the subject is also emotional, personal, and complex, and complicated by the proliferation of terrorists trying to find loopholes in American policy.  The Policy and Planning Office is evaluating programs and trying to determine what policies would best improve a number of government functions.  From terrorism to illegal immigration to the facilitation of transborder traffic, there are a number of competing interests to be balanced.

Mr. Verdery commented on a number of recent policy initiatives in DHS:

Visa Policy:  Many undocumented persons in the United States overstay their visas.  In response, DHS has changed its visa process and entry screening by stationing DHS officers in high-risk places like Saudi Arabia.  It has also reformed the Visas Mantis and Condor Security Advisory Opinion (SAO) checks for persons of interest.  These reforms are causing visa processing delays; thus, DHS is attempting to establish a shortened review period, improved watchlisting efforts, and an extension of the validity period of the Mantis SAO, without losing security-based safeguards against terrorism.  Some progress has already been made, as demonstrated by the reduced Visas Mantis Processing time.

International Travel: In terms of passenger travel documents, DHS is attempting to facilitate individual review.  Biometric identifiers are being implemented to improve confidence in the screening of documents, and the European Union and the US have negotiated over the transfer of passenger names and records.  DHS now has the ability to review incoming passengers while they are in flight, which is useful in facilitating both passenger transit and post flight investigations.  The agency has proposed vetting names before the plane is airborne, a rule which will most likely be discussed later this year.

US-VISIT:  Under the US-VISIT program which collects biometric data in the form of photographs and fingerprints from visitors to the US, nearly 1,000 persons of interest have been identified.  Some persons who committed technical violations were later admitted to the US on a waiver.  Given the success of the program, the US biometric system is quickly becoming a world standard.  It has been implemented in a layered system beginning with citizens from countries requiring visas at air and seaports across the US.  The next layer of the program will be soon implemented in secondary inspection areas of the fifty largest land border entries.   DHS hopes to make US-VISIT fully operational at all US borders by 2005.

Land Border Enforcement:  The Arizona Border Control Initiative increased the enforcement personnel and technology available at the Arizona border.  Additional criminal prosecutors and asylum adjudicators were made available to process arrivals across the border.  DHS also organized, in cooperation with the Mexican government, a voluntary interior repatriation program for Mexican nationals apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol.  While Mr. Verdery recognizes that an enforcement-related squeeze in one location will most likely move flows of persons to other locations, DHS is committed in particular to breaking down human trafficking rings.  ICE officials recently broke up one such ring at the Los Angeles Airport.

Other Enforcement Mechanisms:  DHS also made two significant policy changes this summer.   Border Patrol officials have been given the power to implement expedited removal, and time restrictions for holders of Mexican Border Crossing Cards have been expanded from 72 hours to 30 days.  These programs are designed to reward those playing by the rules, while expediting the deportation of those who do not.  Mr. Verdery assured the audience that all persons claiming asylum or expressing fear of return will get a credible fear interview. 

The President’s Temporary Worker Proposal:  Mr. Verdery also commented that DHS is realistic about migration incentives: as long as there is a demand for immigrant labor in the United States, people will migrate.  President George Bush’s temporary worker program is designed to match willing workers and employers, while drawing out undocumented persons to be registered.  While the proposal will probably not be considered by the sitting Congress, some hearings have been held and internal progress has been made.  If the administration is reelected, Mr. Verdery hopes for further consideration of the proposal next year.

Commentator: John Morton

Two comments followed Mr. Verdery’s remarks.  John Morton, Assistant United States Attorney in the Terrorism and National Security Unit for the Office of the Eastern District of Virginia, spoke about immigration enforcement from a prosecutor’s standpoint.  Paul Redmond, former Central Intelligence Agency Clandestine Service senior official, spoke about international affairs and the cooperation between intelligence and immigration enforcement officials that is needed to strengthen national security.

Mr. Morton stated that he was expressing his views based on his personal experience, and that his comments did not represent the opinion of the office of the United States Attorney.  Mr. Morton made three main points:  1) the creation of DHS affected the immigration-related criminal prosecution effort; 2) immigration fraud is a growing problem in the U.S., and 3) there is a need for comprehensive immigration reform.

• DHS and Criminal Prosecution:  Overall, Mr. Morton had a positive impression of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) efforts to enforce control of America’s borders, as compared to the efforts of the their predecessor agencies.  He believes that there is better cooperation among management, better training, and stronger investments in enforcement policies, and that ICE is on its way to becoming an effective law enforcement agency (though much is left to be done).  On the other hand, the restructuring within DHS has not changed the basic structure of border enforcement, and so the agency has enforcement responsibilities far beyond the means and resources available to it.  Mr. Morton suggests three areas in which DHS should consider reform:
• Defining the administrative responsibility of ICE, and investing in stronger administrative enforcement measures to increase the agency’s effectiveness.
• Examining the structure of BTS and CIS and strengthening coordinated work to reform agency weaknesses.
• Determining who in DHS has the main role in developing national immigration policy, because the Secretary or Deputy Secretary of DHS cannot practically assume the role of day-to-day immigration management.
• Immigration Fraud:  Many key immigration programs are badly abused, affecting a substantial number of benefits granted to immigrants.  The programs are not just abused by clandestine migrants, but also by profitable, well-organized businesses, with both lawyers and immigrants frequently implicated in the fraud.  Mr. Morton lists the most abused programs as: the Social Security system and cards; labor certification (permanent and temporary); asylum applications; religious worker and diplomatic visas; and drivers’ licenses.  He suggested three major areas for reform to reduce immigration fraud:
• Coordinating efforts between agencies, especially BTS, ICE, the FBI, CIA, Department of Labor, and Department of State.
• Examining and preparing overhaul of the most abused programs, because fraud is invited by lax enforcement.  Labor certification in particular should be overhauled because it is currently valid indefinitely, allowing persons to substitute the name of a new immigrant on a still-valid labor certification.  Mr. Morton also suggested that the move to internet based applications for immigration benefits improves productivity and may prevent fraud, but unfortunately the internet applications do not yet take signatures.
• Recognizing that repeated criminal prosecutions are not a long-term solution to immigration fraud, and administrators must take greater responsibility for the integrity of the programs they oversee.
• Comprehensive Immigration Reform: DHS and the administration must address the root cause of problems with the immigration system – there are too many intending immigrants chasing too few spots in the legal immigration system.  Comprehensive immigration reform, including greater and more diverse legal immigration, as well as credible and robust enforcement, is necessary to make the system efficient and effective.

Commentator: Paul Redmond

Mr. Redmond, a former CIA operative, worked briefly as the Assistant Secretary for Information Analysis at DHS.  Since he left the agency nearly a year from the date of this event, his comments were based largely on retrospective experience.

Mr. Redmond believes that BTS has already made contributions to the national intelligence community, but it still must do a better job.  DHS still has a disinclination to mention its work in reference to intelligence (for example, Mr. Redmond’s former position references ‘information,’ not ‘intelligence’ in the title).  Because the Border Patrol and CBP agents are at the front lines of immigration enforcement, there should be more emphasis on their contribution to intelligence.  Border enforcement officials should be gathering information, and should also have access to the information available on potential persons of interest.  He recommends that such officials should:

• Receive extensive training regarding their strategic intelligence role.
• Collect information and input it into a systemized, coherent, and centralized source.

Mr. Redmond concluded that the intelligence community cannot act independently, and must work in concert with DHS.

Questions and Answers:

The moderator asked Mr. Verdery to clarify the status of the administration’s efforts regarding the President’s temporary worker proposal.  Mr. Verdery responded that the President had outlined a broad set of principles, and it was unclear whether the Administration or Congress would take the lead on clarifying the details.  In the interim, DHS has been gathering facts on the technical areas, and working internally on developing potential mechanisms for implementation. For example, the agency has been considering how to coordinate among stakeholders to make sure that those using guest worker documents would undergo sufficient security checks and would be able to use the document to cross the border.  While Mr. Verdery believes it is probably too late this year for broad immigration reform such as the President’s proposal requires, he hopes more details will be available next year.

An audience member asked what efforts Mexico could take to improve the effectiveness of American immigration systems.  Mr. Verdery responded that, while DHS and the Mexican government already have a good relationship and have cooperated on programs such as interior repatriation, several policies would help the US-Mexico relationship in the long term.  These policies include sharing of passenger data and harmonizing visa policies such as the visa waiver program.  Mr. Verdery also cautioned that a guest worker program, such as the one suggested by the President, would require close coordination with Mexico.

A journalist inquired about the October 1 changes to US-VISIT and asked for an assessment of its effectiveness to date.  Mr. Verdery responded that the system was able to return checks in 6 seconds after visa holders became subject to the program on January 1, and has since built up an even greater capacity.  Visa Waiver Program (VWP) countries will are now subject to US-VISIT.  While non-visa-waiver passengers have biometric data on the passport compared against data on their visa, such crosschecking will not be possible with VWP passengers because they do not carry visas.

A question was raised regarding the effects of expedited removal on detention times.  While Mr. Verdery admitted that there are more persons detained than beds available, the expedited removal process is designed to move more persons through detention more rapidly.  He also clarified that, while Congress sets the number of available beds through the appropriations process, criminal aliens are already prioritized for removal ahead of other persons.

An audience member commented on the absence of a discussion on interior and workplace enforcement in Mr. Verdery’s speech.  Mr. Verdery responded that interior enforcement is a key part of the overall DHS strategy, and there is no shortage of ways to address interior immigration violations.  Were a temporary worker program to be implemented, there would be a need for more financing, increased staff, enhanced enforcement tools, and stronger employer sanctions in order to create a strong incentive for those currently hiring undocumented workers to take part in the program.

A question was raised about the new database of fingerprinting, and its ability to be used in field work worldwide.  Mr. Redmond commented that he believed it should be able to be used for practical purposes, or there would have been no reason to develop it.  Mr. Verdery concurred that the database can be used to identify terrorists, and even has an after-the-fact hit capability for crosschecking entries.