Bill Shifts Burden to Asylum-Seekers

The Real ID legislation was introduced by Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, who said it is intended to implement recommendations made by the commission that investigated the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

In addition to restructuring the asylum process, the legislation would force states to verify documents submitted for driver's licenses.

Even traditional allies are butting heads over the measure, which has some expressing concerns about its impact on America's standing as protector of people fleeing oppression.

"Getting asylum is the most difficult way to enter the country," said Patricia Lyman, director of Just Law International, which helps people fleeing religious persecution. The Real ID bill would create "a situation where a judge can exercise discretion and say 'if you don't have a police report, that's too bad.' "

Krikorian said, however, that "human rights groups on the left persuaded some Christian conservative groups that people who were persecuted on religious grounds would be sent back. This is something the left has been trying to make a case for, especially among Christian conservative groups. I think they're being misled."

Rosemary Jenks, director of government relations for NumbersUSA, a conservative group that advocates stricter immigration laws, said the Real ID requirements are not excessive.

"Congress is saying . . . the burden of proof is on you," Jenks said. "You need to prove to the court that you need protection. . . .

"If you say so and so sent you a letter, then where's the letter? If the person says, 'I left it at home, I can't get it,' the judge might say, 'Okay, fine, describe it to me.' If the defendant doesn't produce it where it's reasonable, then that figures into their decision."

Four Senate Republicans -- John McCain (Ariz.), Sam Brownback (Kan.), John E. Sununu (N.H.) and Lamar Alexander (Tenn.) -- successfully fought other conservatives who attempted to attach the Real ID bill to a measure to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and provide tsunami relief in Asia.

The bill is being negotiated in a House-Senate conference committee because it is attached to the war spending bill that Republicans pushed through the House.

On Monday, the Bush administration issued a statement supporting the immigration revisions, but said it "has some concerns with the House-passed version of the bill and will work with the conferees to make sure these concerns are addressed."

Between 1980 and 1994, any immigrant who crossed the border could claim persecution, ask for asylum and receive a permit to work legally in the United States while his or her claims were investigated. The process could take 10 years.

That ended with the CIA shooting and the World Trade Center bombing. With tougher rules in place, the 140,000 people who applied for asylum in 1995 fell to about 30,000 last year, according to the government.

The next year, 1996, Mbongo arrived at Dulles International Airport with fake identification documents and was hard-pressed to prove his story of beatings and torture at the hands of Cameroon government soldiers. He was shackled and detained in jails in Prince William County, Alexandria, Virginia Beach and Fredericksburg.

He spoke only French, he said, and his first interview occurred without an interpreter. He did not understand the questions but labored to answer them anyway. Later, with an interpreter at his side during a hearing, Mbongo told a fuller story that seemed full of inconsistencies to the immigration judge.

"I thought I would be deported," Mbongo said.

He was saved by a San Jose Mercury News reporter who traveled to Cameroon and verified a document that Mbongo said proved his story.

Kamwa was more persuasive. After arriving at John F. Kennedy International Airport in 1999, he spent three years documenting his claim that soldiers raped him in his room and on the same day marched a female student activist across the campus without clothing to humiliate her.

"They hit you with a baton," Kamwa said. "They say, 'Stop any kind of activities. If you do it again, we will kill you.' They beat the bottom of the foot, and you wouldn't be able to stand."