Ashcroft embraces House bill to scrap INS

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Attorney General John Ashcroft Thursday embraced a House bill that would scrap the Immigration and Naturalization Service and replace it with two separate agencies.

"We are committed to ending the INS as we know it," Ashcroft told reporters. "Our nation's security depends on welcoming needed workers. Our nation's prosperity depends on welcoming needed workers. It is time to separate fully our service to legal immigrants who help build America ... from our enforcement against illegal aliens who violate the laws of America."

The two aims sometimes conflict and should therefore be separated, he said.

The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote Thursday on the plan.

Such a move has long been sought by President Bush, Ashcroft said.

"This administration is eager to work with the Congress to restructure the INS. The time has come for the U.S. House of Representatives to pass these important reforms so that our nation's immigration system can serve America more effectively."

House Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin approved the plan two weeks ago.

The new agencies -- to be called the Bureau of Immigration Services and the Bureau of Immigration Enforcement -- would still be under the Justice Department.

Despite his embrace of the bill, Ashcroft said it alone will not solve the problems the agency faces. "This is not the end of the journey. This is an important set of first steps essential to the journey's end, but not sufficient to get us there."

Ashcroft predicted the changes will prove beneficial to the United States' two closest neighbors, Mexico and Canada.

"We believe that the enforcement of immigration laws at the borders and interior of the United States is in the best interest of all three nations," he said.

Pressure for the agency to be restructured mounted after a series of high-profile foul-ups, including the approval of visa extensions for two of the September 11 hijackers months after the attacks.

Several of the 19 hijackers were in the United States illegally when the attacks occurred.

Under its current form, the INS has more than 30,000 employees. The agency was created in 1864 by a law that was intended to encourage immigration.

During fiscal year 2001, with a budget of more than $5 billion, the INS oversaw the inspections of more than 510 million individuals arriving in the United States at more than 300 points of entry.