The head of Homeland Security said today that the measures in the proposed immigration reform bill would have made it easier to track down the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings.
"The bill will help with this, because it requires that passports be electronically readable. It really does a good job of getting human error to the extent it exists out of the process," Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said in statements before the Senate Judiciary Committee today.
The perpetrators of the Boston bombings, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, were eventually identified from surveillance footage of the attacks. Tamerlan was killed in a shootout with police on Thursday, and Dzhokhar was captured on Friday.
"Today, after 10 years of investments in training and equipment and improved information sharing our cities and communities and our nation are stronger, more prepared and engaged and better equipped to address a range if threats. This legislation will build on these gains, strengthening both our overall national security posture and our border security," Napolitano said at the hearing.
Napolitano's assertion comes after some conservatives called for a delay in the consideration of the immigration reform bill, which was formally introduced last week.
"We should not proceed until we understand the specific failures of our immigration system," said Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky on Monday. "The facts emerging in the Boston Marathon bombing have exposed a weakness in our current system. If we don't use this debate as an opportunity to fix flaws in our current system, flaws made even more evident last week, then we will not be doing our jobs."
But supporters of the bill decried what they called an attempt to use the tragedy to interfere with the reform process.
"I urge restraint in that regard. Refugees and asylum-seekers have enriched the fabric of this country from our founding. Let no one be so cruel as to use these heinous acts of two young men last week to derail the dreams and futures of millions of hardworking people," Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont said.
The debate is perhaps one of the early skirmishes in the 2016 presidential race. Paul is likely to face one of the architects of the immigration bill -- fellow Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida -- in the primaries.