The senior Senator from Oregon is talking this afternoon about a basic liberty. without which men are not freethat is. a fair trial. There is nothing fair or just about the procedures of the U.S. Immigration Service in this respect. I regret that the administrators of the U.S. Immigration Service. for years past. have not come before Congress to ask that they be shorn of this arbitrary. discretionary power they have exercised to the injustice of human beings. What do they fall back on? They say that the law permits it. that the law authorizes them to act in that way. That is always a good escape hatch for one to practice arbitrary. capricious power. The Senator from Oregon favors the sealing of that escape hatch. The Senator from Oregon is making a plea that we give to human beings. be they immigrants or natural born citizens. a fair trial to determine whether there is justification for deporting them. A fair trial cannot be had without a statute of limitations. We know that basic in AngloSaxon justice is the guarantee of a limitation upon the prosecution powers of the government. We also know that a statute of limitations is essential if we really and truly are to implement the presumption of innocence doctrine. The trouble with the Immigration Service in many cases is that it proceeds on the presumption of guilt. and because Congress has not included basic legal protections for a fair trial. the duty then is upon the one accused to prove his innocence. That procedure cannot be justified. That is why I am urging the favorable consideration of my amendment.
Keywords matched
Immigration immigrants deporting