9/11 Families Group Backs Legislation To Tighten American Border Controls

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A group representing the families of 300 victims of the September 11 attacks planned to voice support today in Washington for intelligence-reform legislation that would tighten border controls and prevent undocumented immigrants from getting driver’s licenses.

The group, 9/11 Families for a Secure America, said it is supporting recommendations made by the September 11 commission, which said in its report released this summer that the federal government should set standards for issuing identification such as driver’s licenses.

All but one of the 19 hijackers on September 11, 2001, were able to obtain government-issued identification, the commission reported. Lax standards that allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses in some states should be eliminated, said a spokesman for the group, Peter Gadiel.

The bill would also increase border controls.

“If terrorists can’t come into the country they can’t commit terrorist acts,” said Mr. Gadiel, whose son, James, was killed on September 11.

The bill, known as H.R. 10 or the 9/11 Recommendations Implementation Act, was crafted by House Republicans who have blocked a competing measure from reaching the floor for a vote. That measure, sponsored by Senators Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and Susan Collins of Maine, would overhaul American intelligence agencies but includes no provisions on licenses and border controls. It was supported by another group of families of September 11 victims.

Two ardent supporters of H.R. 10, Reps. Duncan Hunter of California and F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. of Wisconsin, have defied President Bush, who has lobbied his party to support the senators’ measure.

Opponents of the Republican-sponsored bill, including the American Immigration Lawyers Association, have said that it has nothing to do with fighting terrorism and that its supporters have falsely claimed the September 11 commission recommended the measures.

The chairman of the commission, Thomas Kean, a former Republican governor of New Jersey, has voiced his support for the senators’ legislation. He said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the crucial question was “whether it will pass now or after a second attack.”

A spokesman for the commission, Al Felzenberg, emphasized that there were more similarities between the two bills than differences and said Congress should pass the senators’ measure even if they cannot bridge the divide over borders and licenses.

“We believe this bill would make the country safer and that this matter should not be delayed,” Mr. Felzenberg said.

Mr. Gadiel said, however, that the proposals in H.R. 10 could be implemented much sooner and with greater effect than the sweeping measures in the Lieberman-Collins bill, which include creating a single position to oversee all American intelligence operations.

Mr. Kean has said the debate over license issuance and border controls should resume at a later time. That prompted Mr. Gadiel to say the September 11 commission was abandoning its own recommendations.

“Their report specifically talks about the fact that licenses were used by terrorists, controlling travel should be a cornerstone of anti-terror policy,” Mr. Gadiel said. “We don’t want another 9/11, but we also don’t want half a bill.”


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