ILW.COM - immigration news: Unaccompanied Child Protection Act and H.R. 5005

[Congressional Record: November 18, 2002 (Senate)] [Page S11284-S11296] From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:cr18no02-29] [...] unaccompanied child protection act Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, I am disappointed that the bill before us does not contain in its entirety the Unaccompanied Child Protection Act, bipartisan legislation I introduced at the beginning of this Congress and that was included as Title XII of the Lieberman substitute to H.R. 5005. I am pleased, however, that the measure contains one key component of that legislation: the transfer of authority over the care and custody of unaccompanied alien children to the Office of Refugee Resettlement within the Department of Health and Human Services. This is key for two reasons: First, we do not want to burden the Secretary of Homeland Security with policy issues unrelated to the threat of terrorism. The Department will have a huge and important mission when this legislation is done and its attention should be focused on that mission. Second, the federal government has a special responsibility to protect the children in its custody. For too long, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, INS, has not lived up to that responsibility. The children's provisions in this legislation is an important first step in correcting decades of questionable practices with regards to children that come under the agency's watch. As I mentioned before, this is an important first step in providing protection for unaccompanied alien children. I ask my friend from Arizona, who is a senior member of the Judiciary Committee and part of the leadership on the other side of the aisle, if he would agree to work with me next year to further refine the important reforms relating to the treatment of unaccompanied alien children. Mr. KYL. I thank my friend from California for her question. I know that [[Page S11296]] she has worked long and hard on these issues and that it is her work and her dedication that is responsible for the inclusion of the children's provisions in the homeland security bill. I would further say to my friend from California that while additional reforms may be warranted, the legislation before us today was primarily a structural bill, not a policy bill. That fact prevented the consideration of some of the reforms she has championed from being included in this legislation. I pledged to work with her in the 108th Congress to help fashion legislation that could address some of the issues that had to be left out of this measure. Mrs. FEINSTEIN. I thank the Senator from Arizona. You may be interested to know that I first became involved in this issue when I heard about a young 15-year old Chinese girl who stood before a U.S. immigration court facing deportation proceedings. She had found her way to the United States as a stowaway in a container ship captured off of Guam, hoping to escape the repression she had experienced in her home country. Although she had committed no crime, the INS sent her to a Portland jail, where she languished for seven months. When the INS brought her before an immigration judge, she stood before him confused, not understanding the proceedings against her. Tears streamed down her face, yet she could not wipe them away because her hands were handcuffed and chained to her waist. While the young girl eventually received asylum in our country, she unnecessarily faced an ordeal no child should bear under our immigration system. This young Chinese girl represents only one of 5,000 foreign-born children who, without parents or legal guardians to protect them, are discovered in the United States each year in need of protection. So you see, this issue calls for clearer policy direction from Congress. I thank my friend and look forward to working with him in the beginning of the 108th Congress. Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, the reorganization of our homeland security efforts is necessary if we are to achieve a higher level of safety for American citizens. The bill before us improves our security by combining into a single department the federal agencies and programs that today have a role in providing homeland security. Those organizations comprise some 170,000 people. Bringing them together under a single reorganized department will enable us to improve coordination of the Government's efforts to defend the United States against terrorist attacks. By creating the cabinet-level position of Secretary of Homeland Security, the bill ensures there will be a leader of this effort, with the appropriate authority and responsibility to carry out that mission. The creation of a Border and Transportation Security Directorate-- bringing together the Immigration and Naturalization Service from the Justice Department, the U.S. Customs Service from the Treasury Department, and the newly created Transportation Security Administration--will make a single entity responsible for securing our border and transportation systems and preventing the entry of terrorists into our country. [...]

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