ImmigrationSponsors: Immigration bill addresses visa flaws highlighted by the Boston bombing

Published 7 May 2013

Lawmakers behind the bipartisan Senate immigration say bill directly addresses some of the security flaws that may have been exploited by the foreign student who helped Dzhokhar Tsarnaev dispose of evidence after the Boston Marathon bombings.

Senator Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) told CNN on Sunday that the bipartisan Senate immigration bill, which he and seven other senators have drafted, directly addresses some of the security flaws that may have been exploited by the foreign student who helped Dzhokhar Tsarnaev dispose of evidence after the Boston Marathon bombings.

“It’s hard to believe 12 years after 9/11 we’re having this conversation, but you put your finger on it. There’s not enough coordination between these different agencies so that we know someone should not have been readmitted to the United States,” Durbin said. “But our bill addresses that directly.”

DHS has instructed its border agents that they now must verify that foreign students entering the country have valid student visas.  Azamat Tazhayakov, who is accused of removing a bookbagt containing fireworks from Tsarnaev’s apartment, entered the country in January without a valid student visa.

Since the bombings, the terrorist-tracking efforts by DHS and the U.S. intelligence community have been criticized because it was revealed that Dzhokhar’s brother, Tamerlan, went on a 6-month trip to Russia, but the trip and its significance were not considered by federal law enforcement agencies due to a spelling error.

Durbin toldCNN that under the bill, federal authorities will be able to track all immigrants and “know not only when they arrive, but when they leave.”

The Senate Judiciary Committee will begin a debate on the bill this week, but some lawmakers are already worried about the long-term prospects.

Durbin said that there were elements of the bill that can be improved, but also cautioned Republicans from trying to move the bill too far to the right.

“I have friends of mine, incidentally, who look at it from the viewpoint of Democrats and from the left and say there are things we’d like to see in it too,” Durbin said. “But we’ve got to basically stick to the standard of what we’ve established, what we’ve agreed to.”

Durbin is also co-sponsoring an amendment which would allow American citizens to sponsor their same-sex partners, but Republicans have said they would oppose this amendment, making it unlikely the bill would pass. Durbin backed the provision, saying it is “consistent with the position we should have marriage equality.”

“If we can find a way through this to protect the basic right of an individual and still pass immigration reform, that’s what I want to achieve,” Durbin said.

The Democratic lawmaker said, however, that the benefits that straight married couples have, and which homosexual couples are fighting for, could soon be solved by the Supreme Court. 

“The Supreme Court has taken up [the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act]. That decision on DOMA may preclude this whole conversation. They may help us reach the right place in this whole conversation,” Durbin stated.