White House backs bill on aliens

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The Bush administration yesterday strongly endorsed a bill to crack down on illegal aliens' use of driver's licenses and tighten asylum and deportation procedures, giving the measure a boost as debate began on the House floor and in anticipation of a final vote today.

"The legislation tightens procedures for noncitizen entry into and presence in the United States, facilitates the building of physical barriers where appropriate to protect U.S. borders, and facilitates the strengthening by the states of the standards for the security and integrity of driver's licenses," the administration said in a statement of policy.

House Republicans said they expect the bill, sponsored by Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., Wisconsin Republican and chairman of the Judiciary Committee, to pass the House today. Mr. Sensenbrenner said he has a commitment from House leaders to then attach the bill to the first "must-pass" piece of legislation to leave the House, which at this point appears to be the soon-to-be-submitted emergency-spending bill for the war in Iraq.

The key provision is the crackdown on illegal aliens' ability to obtain and use driver's licenses as identification.

About a dozen states currently allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses and the bill does not mandate that they change. But it says any ID used for federal purposes, such as boarding an airplane, must be obtainable only by someone lawfully present in the country.

Republican backers said the driver's license issue was a specific response to the September 11 terrorist attacks and to the call by the September 11 commission to crack down on licenses.

"Very simply, 19 terrorists had 63 driver's licenses. Driver's licenses allowed them to get money, to get transportation and to stage the attack on 9/11 on our country," said Rep. Duncan Hunter, California Republican and chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. "It has been made very clear to the American people that we have a compelling reason to reform that defect in our system, and the polls I've seen have shown support for that reform cuts across America."

The bill also gives judges more leeway in denying asylum to applicants, eases the rules for deporting those linked to terrorism overseas, and completing the remaining 3 miles of a 14-mile section of the U.S.-Mexico border fence near San Diego that has been delayed by environmental concerns.

In objecting to the bill yesterday, Democrats keyed on the asylum provisions.

"If this measure becomes law, this will close America's doors to Cubans fleeing from their country, religious minorities attempting to escape religious persecution, women fleeing from sex trafficking, rape or forced abortions," said Rep. John Conyers Jr., Michigan Democrat. "Unfortunately in our history, there have been a number of examples of this overreaction in the past."