Overview of Amendments to the REAL ID Act (H.R. 418) as Passed by the House

Overview of Amendments to the REAL ID Act (H.R. 418) as Passed by the House

Cite as "Posted on AILA InfoNet at Doc. No. 05021141 (Feb. 11, 2005) ."

The REAL ID Act (H.R. 418) passed the House yesterday (2/10/05) by a vote of 261 to 161, notwithstanding the many grave problems with the bill and opposition from a broad range of religious, ethnic, privacy, libertarian, and conservative groups, as well as representatives of state and local governments. To read more about why H.R. 418 is so profoundly flawed in both substance and process, view AILA's Press Release: http://www.aila.org/fileViewer.aspx?docID=17593

Approximately 20 amendments were offered to the bill. Of that number, six were ruled in order with the House approving three of the six. A brief outline of those six amendments follows:

1. House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) offered a Manager's Amendment that was treated by the Rules Committee as self-executing upon approval of the rule. This means that his amendment was not subject to debate or a vote like the rest of the amendments - it became effective automatically. Moreover, since he submitted his revisions after the Committee’s deadline for accepting amendments, no one was permitted to submit amendments addressing those revisions. The revisions contained in his amendment (and now in the bill that passed) were substantial:

* Amended the credibility section to allow the immigration judge to base credibility determinations in asylum proceedings on any single factor. Any inconsistency, inaccuracy, or falsehood contained in their written application or oral testimony can serve as a basis to deny asylum, regardless of whether the inconsistency is even material to the claim of asylum. Any mixup in dates (e.g. date of graduation), or an omission in the airport interview could now become, in and of themselves, a basis to deny asylum.
* Expanded the new corroborating evidence and credibility standards to all other requests for relief from removal, presumably including: applications for withholding or deferral of removal under CAT, cancellation of removal, VAWA cancellation, NACARA, HRIFA, Cuban Adjustment Act, voluntary departure, etc.
* Expanded the prohibition on review over security fence issues from judicial review to all agency, administrative, or other review.
* Expanded the material support grounds of inadmissibility and removal to include support to any “member” of a terrorist organization.
* Incorporated H.R. 100 whole cloth. This measure, introduced by Representatives Sensenbrenner and Dreier (Chair of the Rules Committee), would limit habeas corpus review over detention and removal orders and would eliminate temporary stays of removal pending judicial review.
* Eliminated the asylee adjustment cap. While this is obviously welcome and long overdue, it is little consolation against a backdrop of provisions that will make it nearly impossible for many asylum seekers to find relief here in the future.

View the amendment.

2. Representative Pete Sessions (R-TX) offered an amendment that passed the House by a voice vote. The amendment would provide unprecedented authority to bounty hunters to “pursue, apprehend, detain and surrender” immigrants in removal proceedings. It also would set the minimum bond amount at $10,000 and prohibit the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from releasing on recognizance anyone placed in proceedings. View the Sessions amendment.

3. An amendment offered by Representative Michael Castle (R-DE) also passed by a voice vote. Narrow and fairly noncontroversial, the Castle amendment would codify what may already be the current practice of entering into the appropriate aviation security screening database people who have been convicted of using false driver’s licenses to board airplanes. View the Castle amendment.

4. An amendment offered by Representative Jim Kolbe (R-AZ) that also passed the House by a voice vote would require the DHS to study the technology, equipment, and personnel needed to address security within the U.S. and submit a report to Congress with recommendations for improvement. The amendment would also require the DHS to develop and carry out a ground surveillance pilot program to identify and test ground surveillance technologies that will improve border security. View the Kolbe amendment.

5. The House defeated two additional amendments. The first, offered by Representatives Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and Kendrick Meek (D-FL), sought to strike the asylum provisions from H.R. 418 while preserving the asylum provision in Representative Sensenbrenner’s Manager’s Amendment that would eliminate the asylee adjustment cap. The amendment failed by a vote of 185-236. View the amendment.
6. Another amendment, offered by Representative Sam Farr (D-CA), was rejected by a vote of 179-243. The Farr amendment sought to strike the bill’s provisions that would allow the Secretary of Homeland Security to waive any and all environmental and other laws he deems necessary to expedite construction of security fences and barriers at the borders. View the Farr amendment. In the end, 152 Democrats and 8 Republicans voted to defeat the legislation. See how your member voted.

links from in the article are at http://www.aila.org/contentViewer.aspx?bc=10,911,6717,8584