House Immigration Subcommittee's 2001 Agenda and Membership
Posted Feb 11, 2001

In this article of the MurthyBulletin, we wish to share with you the membership of the U.S. House of Representatives' (House) Immigration Subcommittee and its Agenda, so that you can get a flavor of where immigration issues may go with the new Bush Administration. On January 31, 2001 the House announced its Chair and members. The announcement also includes a detailed agenda, which is heavily focused on enforcement and fraud issues as described further below.

House Immigration Subcommittee Membership

First of all the new Chair, replacing Lamar Smith of Texas, is Representative George Gekas (Republican from Pennsylvania). The other members from the Republican Party are Darrell Issa (California), Melissa Hart (Pennsylvania), Lamar Smith, Elton Gallegly (California), Chris Cannon (Utah) and Jeff Flake (Arizona). The Ranking Minority Member, as before, is Democrat Sheila Jackson-Lee of Texas, while the other Democratic members are Barney Frank (Massachusetts), Howard Berman (California), Zoe Lofgren (California) and Marty Meehan (Massachusetts).

Framework of the Imm Subcommittee Within the Judiciary Committee

The House Immigration Subcommittee is part of the Judiciary Committee, which is chaired by Representative James Sensebrenner (Republican from Wisconsin). Representative Sensebrenner, together with Ranking Minority Member John Conyers (Democrat from Michigan), issued an agenda of hearings that the Judiciary Committee and Immigration Subcommittee plan to conduct. 

Immigration Priorities of the House

Mr. Gekas has stated his priorities are INS reform / reorganization; issues of determining status of non-citizens; modernizing the naturalization oath language; investigating INS enforcement procedures and illegal entry issues. While he supports H1B visas, he is concerned with balancing the needs of the business community with the necessity of having jobs available for U.S. workers. 

INS Management a Priority 

The issue of processing times did not even rank as an agenda item, though it is possible to infer that this problem is included in the INS management and restructuring concerns, which are first on the agenda. Under the heading of INS management, the Subcommittee intends to look at management problems and make recommendations for the most effective restructuring plan. Besides management, the other priorities, in the order listed in the agenda, are as follows:

• Immigration "Reform" - Items for discussion include guest worker proposals for agricultural and possibly other types of jobs, as well as three issues that are listed under the offensive label "immigrant 'quality.'" Those three items are: a) the impact of low-skilled immigrant workers on U.S. workers, b) the needs of employers and c) how to make the immigration system more responsive to employer needs. We at The Law Office of Sheela Murthy hope that the employers participating in these hearings will make clear to their Representatives that workers are needed at all skill levels. In many industries, these essential workers are in short supply.
  

• Overseeing the Legal Immigration System - The Subcommittee plans to hold hearings on various immigration programs to oversee the legal immigration system, including Temporary Protected Status, the new LIFE Act, Student Visas, the Immigrant Investor program, protections for domestic violence victims, and the new T visa for victims of international trafficking.
  

• Illegal Immigration - Items on the Illegal Immigration agenda include border control, smuggling and expedited exclusion procedures.
  

• Criminal and Terrorist Issues - The first item on this part of the agenda dealing with Criminal and Terrorist Issues is the implementation of the Convention Against Torture. However, the issue raised is the impact of this Convention on U.S. ability to deport people. Other items include the secret evidence procedures, used in certain cases when a person is accused of terrorism, as well as detention and removal / deportation issues involving persons with criminal records.
  

• Fraud Concerns - Items to be considered under Fraud Concerns are the state of the INS forensics laboratory, document fraud, whether the INS reviews the facts behind applications / petitions carefully enough before approving them and whether non-citizens are illegally voting.