IMMIGRATION-REFORM CALLS BLOCK INTELLIGENCE OVERHAUL.

Byline: Lisa Friedman Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - Southern California lawmakers who helped kill a post-Sept. 11 bill because it was too soft on illegal immigration vowed this week to smother any future intelligence overhaul that fails to control the flow of undocumented aliens.

Prohibiting the use of matricula consular cards, permitting on-the-spot deportations of illegal immigrants and adopting national standards for driver's licenses top the list of measures that local lawmakers insist must be included in any intelligence bill next year.

``These are not just immigration measures. They're national security measures,'' said Rep. Gary Miller, R-Brea. ``You cannot have national security with open borders. It's impossible.''

Miller was among the lawmakers who orchestrated a Republican conference Saturday at which he denounced as ``ridiculous'' a Senate version that deleted several border reforms.

Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Thousand Oaks, called the provisions ``vital to our national security, '' and said he would vote for intelligence reform only if it contained the more controversial measures.

Rep. David Dreier, R-Glendora, who took a beating from conservatives over immigration during his re-election campaign and was a member of the intelligence bill negotiating team, believes GOP leaders did the right thing by shelving the legislation.

``Immigration reform needs to be a part of this bill,'' Dreier spokeswoman Jo Maney said.

Dreier voted in favor of an earlier House version that included strict immigration measures. Maney declined to detail his position on specific provisions such as a driver's license database and restrictions on asylum seekers.

``He thinks the bill could have been better than what was agreed to on Saturday,'' Maney said. ``He's pleased we're still working on it.''

The intelligence overhaul stemmed from recommendations by the 9-11 commission on national security failures that led to the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

The Senate voted 96-2 in favor of bipartisan legislation that essentially would have made the commission's recommendations law.

The House passed a different version by a vote of 282-134, supported mostly by Republicans, that made it easier to deport illegal immigrants even back to countries known to torture suspects; put stricter restrictions on illegal aliens' ability to obtain driver's licenses; and expanded judicial review in asylum cases.

Democrats, the 9-11 commission and 9-11 families opposed the House version, saying the immigration reforms went too far.

Negotiations collapsed Saturday when the Senate refused to accept those measures, and House leaders, with the support of Los Angeles area Republicans, held up the bill.

Rep. Jane Harman, D-El Segundo, the leading Democrat on the Select Committee on Intelligence and also a member of the negotiating team, pilloried GOP leadership.

``If there is another major terrorist attack on our soil - and sadly, there likely will be one - we will have only ourselves to blame. Congress had the chance to protect America and Congress failed.''

Republicans, meanwhile, insisted that Congress should not blindly follow the 9-11 panel, which conducted 20 months of investigations and hearings.

``The 9-11 commission does not create perfection. It's a recommendation,'' Miller said.

Angela Kelley, deputy director of the National Immigration Forum, an immigration advocacy group in Washington, D.C., called the immigration reforms part of an ``extremist, restrictionist agenda.''

``There is a legitimate role for immigration policy in the security debate,'' Kelly said. But, she argued that fast-track deportations and other measures are ``just to keep immigrants out.''

Lisa Friedman, [phone]

lisa.friedman(at)langnews.com