9/11 kin support provisions on illegals

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A group of families of September 11 victims yesterday told Congress to scrap the entire intelligence overhaul effort this year and start over next year rather than pass the pending bill, which omits strong immigration security provisions.

"You allowed the murder of my son. I will not allow you to kill my daughters," said Joan Molinaro, mother of a New York City firefighter who died September 11, as she first held up a picture of her son and then a picture of her two daughters. "No bill should pass the Senate, the House, anywhere, unless it contains immigration reform -- you secure our borders, you keep my girls alive."

She and fellow leaders of the 300-member 9/11 Families for a Secure America sought to counter the publicity machine of those who support the bill by running radio commercials praising key House Republicans who blocked the bill from coming up for a vote on Nov. 20. The ads instead blame senators.

As the bill languishes in a conference committee, both sides are ramping up massive public-relations campaigns, with dueling press conferences yesterday and the promise of a busy week of publicity ahead.

Other groups of family members of September 11 victims, who oppose the House Republicans and support the senators, are planning public vigils to demand passage of the senators' preferred bill. Meanwhile, September 11 commission members and others are trying to force President Bush to put more pressure on House Republicans to cave in.

"If we don't have a vote on September 11, it will be my feeling that the president didn't weigh in strong enough," said Rep. Christopher Shays, Connecticut Republican, while commission Vice Chairman Lee H. Hamilton, a former Democratic congressman from Indiana, said this is Mr. Bush's "first test" since the election, and "I don't think the president wants to take a defeat on this bill."

And commission Chairman Thomas H. Kean, former Republican governor of New Jersey, warned that Congress "can't play Russian roulette here" by waiting until next year.

Mr. Kean and Mr. Hamilton met with Vice President Dick Cheney yesterday to try to coordinate their lobbying efforts, and Mr. Bush, in a press conference after meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, again called for the bill's passage.

"I want a bill. Let's see if I can say it as plainly as I can -- I am for the intelligence bill," he said.

Key House Republican negotiators want any final bill to include immigration security measures and protections for the military's ability to gather and use intelligence even under a new director of national intelligence. For now, those lawmakers remain at a stalemate with Senate negotiators, who are refusing to accept the immigration security provisions.