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Maura Harty, Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs - Remarks at the Commonwealth Club, San Francisco


Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs
Maura Harty
Commonwealth Club
595 Market Street
San Francisco, California
March 30, 2005 5:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.

It is a real pleasure for me to be here in the beautiful city of San Francisco this evening, and to have this opportunity to speak to you about the Department of State and in particular how the Bureau of Consular Affairs contributes to the national security of the United States in this new century. 
 
In reading about the Commonwealth Club I was struck not only by the history of this important forum, but also by the breadth of its scope and interests.  Kings and queens, writers, policy makers, and artists, activists – you host the great and the good in service to your community and in an effort to enlighten and inform.  I am humbled to have an opportunity to address you and to tell you about your government’s consular representatives and how we serve U.S. interests, both here and abroad.
 
History
 
The consular corps of the United States has a long, honorable and sometimes dramatic history.  Consular officers in the U.S. Foreign Service, people who do what I do, have been serving the United States and protecting the welfare of Americans since 1778 when our infant republic ratified the first Treaty of Friendship and Commerce with France.  The threads of consular history extend as far back as 2,500 years ago.  According to William D. Morgan and Charles Stuart Kennedy in their book entitled, “The U.S. Consul at Work,” the Greek historian Herodotus recorded in the sixth century B.C. that an Egyptian pharaoh designated a city on the Nile delta as a place for Greek traders and sailors to reside.  This city, called Naucratis, developed its own laws and empowered its own administrative officials to guide the residents of the city.  In doing so, the rudiments of a consular corps was established – with Greek officials assigned to protect the welfare of their fellow citizens in a foreign land.
 
Over the centuries, trade and seafaring continued to drive the need for consuls – foreign representatives determined to take care of their fellow citizens.  The Greeks continued the tradition of appointing consuls in trading cities.  The Romans saw the value of consular representation across their vast empire and contributed to history the post and title of “honorary consul.”  The Hanseatic League and the Italian city-state of Venice boosted the consular service by stationing their consuls in foreign ports as well.  No matter the nationality or where they served, however, consuls continued the tradition of protecting the welfare of travelers – mostly seafarers – and fostering commerce. 
 
Now back to American history, where a new nation had just won its war for independence and was learning to protect its own interests abroad.  In 1780, years before the U.S. Constitution was signed, the first American Consul General, William Palfrey, set sail for his posting in France.  Unfortunately, he never made it.  In an early example of the risks involved in a Foreign Service career, Mr. Palfrey was lost at sea when his ship sank.  But Congress quickly followed up by sending Thomas Barclay and the American consular service was born.  Over the years, the consular service expanded from postings in a handful of countries to representation around the world.  In 1924, landmark legislation merged the consular and diplomatic services into the unified Foreign Service that exists today.  Next month, some 35,000 Americans will take the Foreign Service exam – and a substantial number will seek to join the consular ranks.
 
Several very prominent Americans have blessed our ranks as consuls, including a number of literary figures.  Bret Harte, the popular chronicler of frontier life in California, served in Germany and Glasgow, Scotland.  James Fenimore Cooper served in Lyon.
 
Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote thoughtfully about his experiences serving as a consul in England between 1853 and 1860.  He described what he thought were the attributes which would allow a consul to perform his duties respectably:  “a fair amount of common-sense, some acquaintance with the United States statutes, an insight into character, a tact of management, a general knowledge of the world, and a reasonable but not too inveterately decided preference for his own will, and judgment over those of interested people.”  He also pointed out that these attributes on their own do not an effective public servant make; they should be tempered with the wisdom gained by experience. 
 
Service to American Citizens
 
And experience is something we have:  from our very beginnings, we have known a meaner side of a countryman’s trip abroad – an arrest, a death, destitution or illness.  We are ready to be at an American’s side for all of those things and others not foreseen.  It almost, sometimes, feels like a marriage!  One consistent element is clear across the centuries of consular service, whether in America or in consular antecedents of an earlier age.  That element is service.  And those of us who do consular work today know that we are, in fact, touching people’s lives.  From the dawn of our nation’s existence, the mission of our consular officers has been essentially the same:  to protect those lives and the interests of American citizens overseas, and to enhance the national security of the United States through the proper adjudication of U.S. passports and visas.  In essence, once again, to be of service to the individual and the nation.
 
In “protecting the lives and interests of American overseas,” consular officers provide assistance that corresponds with the cycle of our lives:  we certify the birth of new American citizens abroad, we arrange to bring home the remains of an American who has died.  We deal with issues that matter to people in deeply personal ways:  citizenship, marriage, adoption, international child abduction, illness, destitution, evacuation in a crisis, and voter registration – to name a few. 
 
We offer support in times of trouble or tragedy, natural disaster, or political unrest.  Often, when we are called upon for assistance, an American citizen is suffering through some of the worst moments of his or her life. That American desperately needs, not just a helping hand, but a kind and understanding word and we try hard to give it.  It is our privilege to do this work all over the world, often under difficult and even dangerous conditions. 
 
Earlier I spoke about some of the literary heroes who served our nation as consuls in far off lands.  We have other heroes in our consular past and present.  Take Hiram Bingham IV, for example.  Harry Bingham put his career and his life on the line during World War II by helping to rescue at least 2,500 Jews and other opponents of the Nazi regime while he was assigned to Marseille, France in 1940 and 1941.  One of the people he is credited with helping is the painter Marc Chagall, whose work was the subject of a major exhibit at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art less than two years ago.  In 2002, Hiram Bingham’s relatives received a posthumous award for his heroic actions from then Secretary of State Colin Powell.  We honor Mr. Bingham’s actions, ethics and courage.
 
Consular officers today also take on the tough jobs, or head into trouble spots just as others are leaving.  The terrible events of the Indian Ocean tsunamis a few months ago serve as a brutal reminder of how unexpected and arbitrary natural forces can inflict so much damage on the innocent.  Images of the devastation, the victims, and the anguish of the survivors have touched and saddened all of us.  In the midst of the chaos and the loss, consular officers were there to demonstrate our central commitment to providing assistance to American citizens.  It is a story illustrative of our efforts in so many other cases of disaster and tragedy.  And although the scope of this response was quite large, it is the fact of a huge tragedy, not the size, that propels us into action.
 
When we first learned of the earthquake and tsunami, we established a consular task force and call center to field calls from worried Americans.  Both operations were staffed 24/7, and at the height of the crisis we had 42 people working on every shift.  Over the course of several weeks, we received over 32,000 calls from the very general:  “Did the tsunamis affect Quito?” To the very specific:  “My daughter was on vacation in Phuket and I haven’t heard from her.” 
 
From these calls we developed a list of over 15,000 names – people who Americans were concerned about who might have been in harm’s way – and then began whittling this number down.  We used every available resource, from our own systems to the Internet, immigration and airline records and the media to get and share as much information as we could.  Our colleagues in Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, and Indonesia went door to door, from hotel to hotel, hospital to hospital, morgue to morgue.  Individual caseworkers assisted the families of those who were confirmed dead and those who are presumed dead.  Although tragic, today there are fewer than 12 unresolved inquiries.  But we will continue to work until everything that is knowable about those last remaining inquiries is known to us.
 
Two real heroes of those terrible days were consular officers who just happened to be in Phuket with their families when the tidal waves struck.  After making sure that their families were all right, and not knowing each other or even that they were both in Phuket, they both got to work.  They canvassed hospitals looking for American citizens.  They found several Americans who had already been treated and released and got through to Bangkok so that when we started to get inquiries about the welfare and whereabouts of American citizens, some of the cases had already been resolved.  Although joined quite quickly by others from Bangkok and many of our other posts around the world, these two officers stayed for six more days, working to bring information and peace of mind to Americans thousands of miles from harm’s way.
 
This is what consular officers do:  we help American citizens and their families, sometimes during the hardest moments of their lives. 
 
Many of you have traveled overseas or will in the future.  Please don’t take this the wrong way when I admit that it is my fervent hope that you will never need to seek our assistance.  To help you before you go, we developed an information system to inform American travelers about conditions in countries.  In an increasingly interconnected world, with threats from terrorism, political unrest and unpredictable natural disasters, we have a responsibility to keep people informed of up-to-the-minute information.  We do so through a system of travel warnings and public announcements published on our website, www.travel.state.gov.  This website had 230 million “hits” last year.  I would urge you to consult it before you travel.  I would also like to ask that you consider registering with us on that website and telling us of your travel plans.  That way, should an emergency of any kind occur, we will be able to find you more readily and put you in touch with friends or family who would be eager to contact you. 
 
Secure Borders/Open Doors
 
Now I would like to turn to the consular officer’s role in protecting our nation’s borders.   Consular officers serving overseas in over 200 embassies and consulates literally serve on the front lines of the global war on terror and have done so for many years.  We have the responsibility to adjudicate passports, as well as immigrant and nonimmigrant visa applications, in a manner that protects U.S. borders while continuing to ensure that the U.S. remains a welcoming nation to legitimate visitors.  This is the policy that we refer to as “Secure Borders and Open Doors.”
 
We are charged with determining who is entitled to receive what is among the most valuable documents on the planet:  a U.S. passport.  We do this through 16 domestic agencies and at embassies and consulates all over the world.  Last year we issued close to 9 million passports.  We will soon start producing an entirely new version of the U.S. passport that includes the latest technology – biometrics and embedded microchips.  It will be even harder to counterfeit, or to be used by an imposter.  We have completely redesigned the passport and, while the cover is still the same, everything else has been updated and improved, and the design is really impressive.  We will start production later this year and will have a full rollout of the new passport in 2006.
 
U.S. visas are also very valuable documents.  They allow foreigners to visit our country for a variety of reasons, including tourism, business, or study.  Immigrant visas are the first step on the road to permanent residency, or even citizenship.  How we adjudicate visas rightfully became a subject of intense scrutiny following the attacks of September 11.  We have changed much since that time.  And our efforts will always be informed by our solemn duty to keep this country safe.  But we also know that we ought not – cannot – turn our backs on the world.  For our own national security, we must remain engaged.  We are a stronger nation when foreigners legally join us, learn about us, and contribute to our society. 
 
The challenge of securing our borders while facilitating legitimate travel is ongoing, but I firmly believe that these objectives are not mutually exclusive.  When we make this country more secure for American citizens, we make it more secure for everyone.  We must never forget that on September 11 our grave loss was shared by many nations.  Citizens of ninety different countries lost their lives that dreadful day.  There is not a decent person anywhere who does not repudiate strongly what occurred in New York, Washington and in the skies over Pennsylvania.  And those people of good will everywhere are the people with whom we must continue to interact.  When we facilitate well-intentioned travel to our shores, we remain faithful to our history as a welcoming nation – in fact, as a nation of nations. 
 
An important component of our national security is continued vibrant economic growth.  Last year we welcomed approximately 42 million foreign visitors – for tourism, work or study – and they spent $93.5 billion on travel and tourism here.  Beyond the dollar signs and jobs that figure implies, the good will that we engender among foreign visitors who visit the U.S., attend our schools, do business with us and experience some of the cultural, economic and tourist opportunities that this country has to offer, defies quantification. 
 
Many of you know that the state of California hosts more foreign students at its excellent colleges and universities than any other state in the nation.  America is preeminent in the field of higher education and gained that standing with the contributions of students and academics from all over the world.  And California leads the way.
 
For our part, the State Department has a decades-long commitment to fostering international exchange.  Programs including Fulbright scholarships and International Visitor grants offer a particularly compelling illustration of the impact of academic exchanges.  Since the Fulbright program’s inception, over 255,000 people, some 96,400 from the United States and 153,600 from other countries, have participated in Fulbright exchanges.  State’s International Visitor program promotes mutual understanding and closer ties among countries and people by bringing current and future leaders of other nations here for targeted education opportunities.  More than 110,000 international visitors have participated in this program – and a conversation with a consul is a critical element in this process. 
 
More than two hundred alumni of these exchange programs have become heads of state or government, including such well recognized figures as Anwar Sadat, Indira Gandhi, Kofi Annan, King Abdullah of Jordan, Hamid Karzai, Tony Blair, Mikhail Saakashvili, who led the rose revolution in Georgia and is now its president – and most of his cabinet.  A recent example is Kenyan activist Wangari Maathai, the winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize.  Countless others have become academic, scientific, business and community leaders in their own nations.
 
We know that the personal and professional relationships that are developed during educational and cultural exchanges form a foundation of understanding and lasting partnerships, not just between young people, but between nations, societies, and cultures.  We are proud of our programs and the efforts that help us identify and encourage bright and talented future foreign leaders to come here.  We must welcome foreign students to our campuses so that they see America with their own eyes, rather than through the prism of a possibly biased foreign media outlet.  When these students go home, grow up and become civic, or social, religious or political leaders in their own countries, we want their views to be informed by first-hand experience with all that America has to offer.
 
As Secretary Rice said during her confirmation hearings,
“Our interaction with the rest of the world must be a conversation, not a monologue, and America must remain open to visitors and workers and students from around the world.  We do not and will not compromise our security standards, yet if our public diplomacy efforts are to succeed, we cannot close ourselves off from the rest of the world.”
 
It is our fundamental commitment to protecting both our nation and the openness of the United States that underpins our approach to border security and immigration.  Security must always be our first priority, but we work every day to see that access to our country is not impeded for those whose presence we encourage and value. 
 
I know that there is a continuing need to communicate that message.  In the immediate aftermath of September 11, visa demand by foreigners wishing to come to the United States dropped off by forty percent, and it is still well below what it was prior to that awful day.  Many programs were put in place immediately after the attacks to tighten up our procedures and our borders.  Frankly, we inadvertently built in some terrible inefficiencies.  But we have been retooling over the past two years to be faithful to our goals of balancing security and openness. 
 
In making improvements to the visa process, we have consulted with colleagues in the academic, science and research communities, as well as the business community, both to solicit input and more recently, to inform them that we believe we have turned a corner in our ability to provide predictable, efficient visa services.  We have also taken this message to those who need to hear it most:  students in foreign countries, international businesspeople, those who want to experience America because they admire our country.  And they know how very much we have to offer here.

Your Consular Corps
 
I hope this gives you a better understanding of some of the things we at the State Department do to be of service to our fellow citizens.  Consular officers commit themselves to helping those in need and to doing our utmost to prevent travel by those who would do us harm.
 
Many have shown courage and ingenuity and in the face of adversity, and in service to their fellow citizens.  We have touched people’s lives and saved lives in situations so disparate that they defy brief descriptions in the time we have together. 
 
I was privileged some years ago to serve as special assistant to then-Secretary of State George P. Shultz.  In describing our role and responsibility as public servants, he often used the phrase, “Trust is the coin of the realm.”  If I leave you with one thought tonight, it is to ask that you trust in our desire to be of service to you.  That you trust in our commitment to do our utmost to keep our borders safe.  The privilege of public service is ours.  This is what we do.
 
And now, if my remarks have sparked any questions, I will be happy to answer them.