House passes bill to split INS into two agencies

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly Thursday to scrap the beleaguered Immigration and Naturalization Service and replace it with two separate agencies -- one to handle immigration services, another for law enforcement.

The 405-9 vote took place hours after Attorney General John Ashcroft went to Capitol Hill to announce the Bush administration's support for the bill, despite the administration's earlier position that it wanted to reform the agency from within.

"We are committed to ending the INS as we know it," Ashcroft told reporters. "Our nation's security depends on protecting our lengthy borders. 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."

Ashcroft, however, called the House vote a first step and said he wants to make changes to the bill as it makes its way to the Senate for consideration there.

"This bill will be picked up in the Senate, and we can get a bill to the president's desk," predicted House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Missouri. "I think this is an issue in which reform is expected and needed."

Florida Republican Rep. Mark Foley was more direct: "The common goal of ridding our system of an incompetent agency that costs people their lives is a worthy one," he said.

Previous efforts to reform the INS have fallen short, in the view of most lawmakers.

The issue regained the spotlight after the September 11 attacks when it was discovered three of the accused hijackers were in the U.S. In addition, two of the alleged hijackers aboard the airplanes that flew into the World Trade Center won visa approval to attend flight school six months after the attack.