Contact: Ernest Blazar 202-224-7627 Shana Stribling 224-0309
Thursday, October 4, 2001

WASHINGTON - Senator Kit Bond today introduced his bill to close immigration loopholes exploited by the terrorists who destroyed New York’s World Trade Center and attacked the Pentagon on September 11th. Senators Kent Conrad (D-ND) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) joined Bond by co-sponsoring the “Visa Integrity and Security Act.”

“This bill will boost our ability to identify, locate or remove foreigners who deliberately remain in this country long after their tourist or student visas expire,” said Bond. “This nation has now seen the terrible dangers associated with failing to enforce visa deadlines. We have a duty to make this country safer for Americans and legal foreign visitors who follow the rules.”

Bond’s legislation has two major goals: Conduct better background checks and screening of visa applicants to make it more difficult for prospective terrorists to enter the country; and 2) Improve the ability to track the status of visa holders within the United States. Bond’s legislation calls for:

* CONTROL OF VISA HOLDERS – Develop an automated system to track visa holders to determine their legal status in real-time. Require the use of biometric technology within a tamper-proof visa to provide highest degree of positive identification possible to federal and local law enforcement officials.

* IMPROVE VISA SCREENING - Mandate and authorize increased funding for the sharing of law enforcement and intelligence information -- including State Department, CIA, INS, FBI and NCIC databases -- to perform thorough background checks on all visa applicants.

* STUDENT VISAS - Boost oversight of all foreign student visa holders within the United States. Schools shall report to the INS within 30 days of start of the school term if the holder of an I-20 issued by that school does not begin coursework. If it is determined that the student entered the country but has not enrolled at a school, the visa holder shall be presumed an overstayer and it shall be reported to the FBI to be included in the NCIC database. * VISA WAIVER PROGRAM - Tighten eligibility standards for nations from which visas are not required for entry to the United States.