Mr. Speaker. there Is language in the Legal Services section of H.R. 4392 which states that no funds appropriated to this agency may be used on behalf of any aliens "known to be" in the United States in violation of immigration laws. It is extremely troublesome to me that this language has been included in the bill for a number of reasons. one of the most important of which is because of the impact it could have on United States citizens who are Hispanic. Asian. or West Indian. among others. I want it to be clearly understood that under no circumstances are Legal Services employees to convert into a suspect class persons who are of Hispanic or Asian or West Indian descent because of their national origins. Under no circumstances should a Puerto Rican. a MexicanAmerican. a Chinese American. or a Haitian ever have to satisfy a staff member of the Legal Services Corporation that he or she is here validly. while a person of Irish descent would never even be questioned. Furthermore. under the Immigration and Nationality Act. and current regulations promulgated thereunder. a determination that an individual is in this country in violation of law is a complex matter which is left. by law. in the hands of administrative and Federal judges. Current immigration law provides that the legality of a persons presence in the United States must be determined only after a thorough due process deportation or exclusionary proceeding. in which INS. and not Legal Services. investigates the legality of a persons presence in this country. In fact. the Immigration and Naturalization Service is legally precluded from requiring a person to depart from the United States until a final finding of deportability or excludability is entered and statutory review procedures are exhausted or waived. Both the Justice Department and Immigration judges have recently commented on the positive role played by Legal Services attorneys in these complex proceedings representing indigent aliens. It is certainly not the intent of Congress to require Legal Services staff members to prejudge the outcome of official deportation or exclusion proceedings. Nor is it the intent of Congress to substitute the subjective judgment of an individual Legal Services staff member as to whether a potential client is legally within the country for the full due process administrative and judicial proceedings that an individual is entitled to receive under our laws and regulations.O
Identified stereotypes
Suggests that people of Hispanic, Asian, or West Indian descent are more likely to be undocumented immigrants.