Homeland Security Subcommittee of the House APpropriations Commttee - Fiscal Year 2005 Budget Request for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

Federal News Service March 17, 2004 Wednesday

March 17, 2004 Wednesday

HEADLINE: HEARING OF THE HOMELAND SECURITY SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE SUBJECT: FISCAL YEAR 2005 BUDGET REQUEST FOR THE U.S. IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT

CHAIRED BY: REPRESENTATIVE HAROLD ROGERS (R-KY) WITNESS: MICHAEL J. GARCIA, ASSISTANT SECRETARY, U.S. IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

LOCATION: 2358 RAYBURN HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING, WASHINGTON, D.C.

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REP. ROGERS: Mr. Wamp?

REP. ZACH WAMP (R-TN): Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Secretary, thanks for coming back this week in an open setting. Having served on the Commerce, Justice, State Subcommittee with Chairman Rogers, I give him a lot of credit for the reforms that have taken place. Even prior to September 11 he was working in the directions that we're now in on bringing about more accountability and more efficiency. And one of the creations in the late '90s that came out of our subcommittee over there was the establishment of these QRT facilities, Quick Response Team facilities.

You may know a lot about them, but one thing I want to share with you in this open meeting and ask you if you would support a change that I've proposed is the way these facilities are sited.

And we had one come to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where I live and always have lived. It is not a good system. You turn responsibility over to GSA; I guess that's by statute. But GSA then deals with developers on site selection and what we found out the hard way is that the developers actually choose the site instead of the community that they're sited in.

And they chose the site that would have been probably good from the financial standpoint in terms of future value. But the site was not a good site in terms of the community, churches, schools, neighborhoods because this is a facility where obviously illegal aliens are processed and there are weapons there and people come in through that facility, and there is a potential for it to be more of a-you know, it's a processing facility not a correction facility but, you know, you could have violent individuals come through there. Long story short: they chose the site, the public just was outraged. I got involved and we've now had to go through a process of going to another site.

But the bill that I've offered is H.R. 3013. It's pending before the Judiciary Committee and it would just require the secretary of Homeland Security conduct a public hearing in the community before a QRT facility is either established or relocated into that community. It seems like an obvious thing, but I'll guarantee you a public process would have not allowed the changes that were forced on the location of the site in Chattanooga. It's very complicated to work your way back through after a developer had already selected the site and they have all the-we had a public meeting but there's nothing in the statute to require public notice, public meetings. The local government officials were caught off guard. I do know that a person in the permitting office knew about it, but that didn't mean the public knew about it, and that was a problem.

So I would just ask you if you would support-it's almost a technical corrections amendment, but it's actually a bill going through Judiciary that would require public meetings before these QRT facilities are sited. I think they're very important, more and more so. We've got illegal aliens, you know, moving into our region for jobs. There's no doubt, you know, they're going to follow wherever the economic opportunity is. But when they have to be processed and all of a sudden you find a vanload of people that aren't supposed to be here, you've got to have a facility particularly in these metro areas. But where it's sited is critical. Would you support that approach?

MR. GARCIA: Congressman, I actually believe I may have been there when that issue in Chattanooga came up, or I've heard about it, and we did send people down to come to the meeting and talk to the local community about it. It's an issue. I haven't-I'm not familiar with your legislation; I'd be happy to look at it and see. It's a difficult issue where we're going to put those types of facilities. We have not only QRTs but obviously other facilities as well, so I'd be happy to look at it.

REP. WAMP: But just to close the loop, with the public involvement and the city's officials being involved we did secure a site and had a public meeting and there was relatively no opposition because you went through a more sophisticated and professional approach as opposed to the developer saying, hey, in 10 years this piece of property is really going to be valuable, if I can own this building in 10 years after leasing it to the Department of Homeland Security or ICE. Obviously those are the kinds of areas where there's a lot of commercial activity and all that might-maybe are not the best place to put a QRT facility. Maybe it needs to be in a place where there's not that kind of growth potential. And so as the motive-I came out of that business. I was a developer and I know exactly what they're looking for, but that's the wrong incentive for locating a site like this, so I think a public process is in order.

And with that I yield back. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

MR. GARCIA: Thank you.

REP. ROGERS: Thank you, Mr. Wamp.