Hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee

June 9, 2004 Wednesday

SECTION: PRESS CONFERENCE OR SPEECH

HEADLINE: HEARING OF THE SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE

SUBJECT: FEDERAL GOVERNMENT COUNTERTERRORISM EFFORTS

CHAIRED BY: SENATOR ORRIN HATCH (R-UT)

WITNESS: SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY TOM RIDGE

LOCATION: 226 DIRKSEN SENATE OFFICE BUILDING, WASHINGTON, D.C.
SEN. RICHARD DURBIN (D-IL): Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

And, Governor Ridge, thank you for being here today and for your service to our country.

And we spoke briefly before about the interoperable information systems, which has been an issue of concern. I met with your chief information officer, Steve Cooper, on March 3rd. He really was impressive. I think things are moving in the right direction.

In your appropriation bill, I asked for a report. I'm sure you're always glad to have a request from Congress for a report. If you'd be kind enough to take a look at it and ask your people to respond, I would appreciate that very much.

SEC. RIDGE: Sure.

SEN. DURBIN: If I could ask you two specific areas.

One of your responsibilities now, of course, with the new consolidated department is in the area of immigration. There is only one immigration reform proposal that has been reported to the floor in the 108th Congress, and it came from this committee. And it relates to a measure known as the DREAM Act, which Senator Hatch and I are cosponsoring. It passed from this committee on a 16 to three vote, and it relates to providing immigration relief to a select group of students of good moral character who want to pursue college education or military service or community service, for example. This bill has a lot of support -- 48 cosponsors -- 48 sponsors and cosponsors-but the administration has not taken a position on it. Do you know what the administration position is on the DREAM Act?

SEC. RIDGE: I think you just told me. Officially there is none. But we are-I would prefer to have the opportunity to review it myself and get back to you, as I've tried to do with some of the other colleagues on some of the other pieces of legislation.

SEN. DURBIN: If you would, please. I've certainly had a lot of differences with this administration, but I publicly saluted the president for raising the immigration issue; a difficult, difficult issue, but one that we can't ignore. And I think Senator Hatch and I have found a reasonable way to deal with a specific group of young people who will make a great contribution to America, given that chance. So I hope that you would ask the president when you see him and get back to me. (Chuckles.) That would be very helpful.

Now I want to speak to an area that is a little more controversial, the special registration program. That explicitly targeted Arab and Muslim males, requiring them to register with your department.

SEC. RIDGE: Right.

SEN. DURBIN: The Justice Department created the program; you inherited it. We found that singling out a large group of Arabs and Muslims-it turned out the vast-overwhelming majority of them were innocent people and really didn't-that effort didn't help in our efforts to combat terrorism. We in doing so, though, have alienated a very important community of people in our country. Due to inadequate publicity and information and misinformation from the Department of Justice, many of those who were supposed to register didn't or registered late. More than 83,000 people have registered so far.

Almost 14,000 have been placed in deportation hearings-proceedings because of this. Many were here in the country legally and are being deported simply because they failed to comply with all the requirements of special registration.

Over the past year and a half, a lot of people have expressed concerns about this program. I wrote to you on January 23rd to ask a number of questions about this program. I think this program has failed us in terms of making America safer and in fact has created an undue hardship on innocent people. Will you terminate the Special Registration Program?

SEC. RIDGE: Senator, first of all, because you've paid very close attention to the program, you know that it was our department that did inherit it, but eliminated the 30-day call-back and the annual review. And I would tell you that we are presently-because we now have a good and a robust entry-exit system, we think our long- term goal should be to treat everybody the same way as they come across their borders, not targeting anyone.

And so we are looking at some of the changes, some of the adjustments made to visa policy and some of the adjustments we made immediately after 9/11, to see the impact of that. And one of the areas we're looking at very, very carefully is what, if anything, we should do to either modify or eliminate the NSEERS program-that's what you're talking about-with the goal being that regardless of the country of origin, regardless of ethnicity, you'd be treated-when you come to our borders, you'd be treated the same way.

And that review is ongoing. And it would be my intention to make some recommendations not only in that but other areas of visa policy to the administration within the next 30 to 45 days. And once that review is completed, I'd be happy, either by phone call or by visit, to tell you what we intend to do about it.

The goal-we share the same goal. If you come to the United States, we're an open, welcoming country. We benefit from that kind of openness, and we all the know the enormous benefits, which treat everybody the same way. In order to do that, we have to make some adjustments to things that we did right after 9/11, for which we're not going to make an apology, but it's time to look at them and see if they've really served the purpose for which they were intended, with the goal being one policy applied universally, regardless of country of origin.

SEN. DURBIN: That is a fair standard, and I think it's one that all of us would applaud. And I commend you for aspiring to that goal in a timely fashion.

I would ask you, as you take a look at this program, that you pay special attention to several things. Individuals who are under the Special Registration Program can still only leave the United States from certain points of departure and have to register their departure with an immigration officer. And I guess the most troubling aspect is that there were many who were placed in deportation proceedings and face deportation, not because they were here illegally, but simply because they either registered late or failed to register under the terms of the program.

I think that I detected in your remarks the notion that perhaps there were decisions made soon after 9/11 which we can now reflect on and say, all right, now we were doing those in our best efforts to make America safe; some achieved their goals, some did not. Now let's be honest about those that did not and not punish people if we created a program which, in effect, has led to their deportation or some punishment that they did not deserve. And I hope when you take a look at it, you will take a look at that particular aspect --

SEC. RIDGE: I will.

SEN. DURBIN: -- because I think that's a hardship that we ought to try our best to alleviate.

SEC. RIDGE: I think it makes very good sense for us to, on a regular basis, review what we do in terms of our borders, with an eye toward always enhancing security. But did the outcomes we hope to achieve and the benefits we hope to achieve, did we actually realize them?

And again, that's tied to the larger goal of-we have historically been as open and as welcoming and as diverse a country as there is on the face of the earth, and we don't want to let the terrorists change that rather unique, extraordinary quality of America. That's why the goal, as we review the adjustments we made in a post-9/11 world, is to bring back that universality of application of whatever the policy might be, and I'll be pleased to reflect on both these particular elements in that review process.

SEN. DURBIN: Let me say in closing, Mr. Chairman: Governor, thank you for your hard work and your accessibility. I know there are some who are troubled by congressional meddling in your executive department, but you have been patient to a fault and submitted to questions time and again. It makes a real difference, and I think it increases the confidence level and the level of dialogue, and I think that's very important for our country. Thank you.