Speech #1050075076

For this reason and the fact that Senator ABRAHAM and Senator KENNEDY have strengthened the safeguards in the VWPP. I am supporting this legislation. This bill expands along the concept of promoting tourism and trade and fostering closer ties between our country and our allies by increasing the refusal rates needed to become eligible for inclusion into the Visa Waiver Pilot Program. The bill also addresses many of the concerns raised by the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Justice Department by including additional safeguards to ensure that the program is not abused and becomes a vehicle for illegal immigration. For instance. in order for a visa waiver country to be redesignated as a visa waiver country. under this legislation the Attorney General must make precise estimates. based upon data collected from an automated entryexit control system. of the overstay rates of each country. If the Attorney General cannot make an estimate for a country. that country will lose its privilege to travel to the United States visa free. In the past. Congress could not adequately monitor the effectiveness of the Visa Waiver Pilot Program. With the requirements for overstay rates. Congress will have analytical evidence that countries are not abusing this privilege and that the Visa Waiver Pilot Program works. Coupled with the additional safeguards. including the requirement for machine readable and highly fraud resistant passports for countries entering the program. the entryexit control system. already being implemented by INS. will ensure that the VWPP continues to be successful. I would like to see further changes. For example. changing the reliance on arbitrary refusal rates decided in many cases by overworked staff in our embassies and consulate offices abroad. Examples where embassy staff have mistakingly denied visas. abound. They include: President Kim Young Sams sister rejected the first time she applied for a tourist visa. The daughter of the chairman of the multibilliondollar company. Hyundai. was rejected for a student visa based on insufficient financial resources. The son of the president of IBM Korea was rejected because the consular office did not believe the son would be a good student. He had already been accepted in the school in the United States. For South Korea. where our United States Embassy processes more nonimmigrant visa applications than any other country in the world. the use of the refusal rate automatically puts South Korea at a disadvantage. This needs to be corrected. Perhaps with the establishment of a working entryexit control system required in this bill. the overstay rate coupled with other objective criteria can be used to determine eligibility. I would like to commend Senator ABRAHAM and Senator KENNEDY for taking such an active role regarding Korea and the Visa Waiver Pilot Program. The Subcommittee on Immigration on the Judiciary Committee has worked closely with my staff to try to accommodate my concerns. I look forward to working closely with both Senators in the future regarding this issue.